Miguel Oliveira eased to KTM’s second-successive Moto2 victory ahead of team–mate Brad Binder in the Malaysian Grand Prix, while new champion Franco Morbidelli finished third.
Morbidelli was crowned 2017 Moto2 world champion prior to morning warm-up when nearest rival Tom Luthi was declared unfit to participate due to an ankle injury sustained in a heavy qualifying crash.
Phillip Island race winner Oliveira took the holeshot in a chaotic start to the 19-lap contest, as Alex Marquez crashed at Turn2 while Andrea Locatelli triggered a pile-up at Turn 1 with Axel Pons, Khairul Idham Pawi and Luca Marini.
Further round the lap, Sandro Cortese collidied with Takaaki Nakagami at Turn 7 – the pair going down in unison, both thankfully unhurt.
At the end of the second lap, Oliveira had opened up his advantage over pole man Morbidelli to over a second and blasted the lap record with a 2m07.101s.
The Portuguese rider continued to increase his advantage over the next 10 laps to almost five seconds while setting several circuit records, culminating in a 2m06.952s.
Morbidelli held sway in the battle for second despite the sister KTM of Binder shadowing him for much of the second half of the race having disposed of Francesco Bagnaia on the eighth lap.
Binder – who beat Morbidelli to second at Phillip Island – launched a daring attack at Turn 5 with four laps to go and took over second spot, with Morbidelli powerless to respond over the final few laps.
Oliveira‘s pace in the closing stages just dropped a little as spots of rain appeared over the Sepang circuit, though he still took the chequered flag 2.3s clear of Binder to secure third in the standings.
Mattia Pasini snatched fourth at the flag after a late charge, while Bagnaia headed home favourite Hafizh Syahrin and Fabio Quartararo. Xavi Vierge, Isaac Vinales and Tetsuta Nagashima rounded out the top 10.
Simone Corsi was just 1.4s adrift of the top 10 in 11th, the Italian just beating Speed Up team-mate Augusto Fernandez in 12th. Locatelli recovered to 13th after his lap one contact, while Inetrwetten’s Iker Lecuona and Jesko Raffin took the final points.
Lorenzo Baldassarri joined Forward team-mate Marini on the sidelines after a late fall, with his fellow Valentino Rossi Academy rider Stefan Manzi tumbling out of ninth on lap 11.
Jorge Navarro’s stand-in at Gresini Dimas Ekky Pratama was running as high as 12th in the early stages of his grand prix debut, but was tangled up in an incident with Remy Gardner at Turn 9 just seconds before Marquez fell for a second time at Turn 6.
