Malaysian Moto3: Bagnaia dominates after chaos strikes front-runners

The Italian took the lead of the race after a crash at Turn 7, which took out the leading group of Brad Binder, Joan Mir and Lorenzo dalla Porta.

It was then a case of keeping the advantage in check for Bagnaia, as the tow was broken to the chasing pack. He extended the lead lap-by-lap over his closest challenger Jakub Kornfeil, eventually being classified seven seconds clear.

While Bagnaia was up ahead in distance, the battle for second heated up, with Kornfeil having to fend off Bo Bendsneyder and Fabio Quartararo.

But the race came to an abrupt red-flag end as drizzling rain returned, and Maria Herrera crashed at the final corner on Lap 15.

That confirmed Bagnaia his second win of the season, which moves him up to third in the standings. It was also the Indian manufacturer Mahindra's third win of 2016.

With the results taken on Lap 13, even though Bendsneyder took second on track, the KTM rider was moved back to third behind Kornfeil.

It was Bendsneyder's second podium of the season, and the first for Kornfeil for the Malaysian Drive M7 SIC Racing Team.

Behind, Quartararo was fourth as Andrea Locatelli rounded off the top five. Marcos Ramirez for the second race in succession scored points with a sixth place finish.

Gabriel Rodrigo was seventh, having been involved in the lead battle at the initial stages of the race, before falling off the pace.

Khairul Idham Pawi took eighth in his home race, while Livio Loi and Darryn Binder completed the top 10.

Only 17 finishers after incidents

The race saw several crashes much like last weekend’s race in Australia. The first lap took out eight riders, with a few retiring immediately.

At first, it was Andrea Migno who crashed into Juanfran Guevara, with Enea Bastianini's replacement Ayumu Sasaki also retiring.

Further ahead in the lap, there was a major incident when Jorge Martin high-sided and lost control of his bike, causing a chain reaction collision that took out Aron Canet, Philipp Oettl, Adam Norrodin and Niccolo Bulega.

While Norrodin continued, he had another incident at Turn 7 later on in the race which saw 2016 champion Binder, Mir, dalla Porta and Fabio di Giannantonio all bizarrely sliding out in the same corner.

Binder, dalla Porta and di Giannantonio continued, with the latter scoring a point by finishing 15th.

Meanwhile, Martin, Bulega, Norrodin and Oettl were taken to the medical center for precautionary checks.

The retirement list also included Jules Danilo, Jorge Navarro, Albert Arenas and Tatsuki Suzuki.

Race results:

Pos	Driver	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Francesco Bagnaia	Mahindra	13	29'29.351
2	Jakub Kornfeil	Honda	13	29'36.459	7.108
3	Bo Bendsneyder	KTM	13	29'36.604	7.253
4	Fabio Quartararo	KTM	13	29'37.820	8.469
5	Andrea Locatelli	KTM	13	29'41.765	12.414
6	Marcos Ramirez	Mahindra	13	29'42.057	12.706
7	Gabriel Rodrigo	KTM	13	29'42.738	13.387
8	Khairul Idham Pawi	Honda	13	29'42.857	13.506
9	Livio Loi	Honda	13	29'43.796	14.445
10	Darryn Binder	Mahindra	13	30'08.128	38.777
11	Hafiq Azmi	Peugeot	13	30'15.178	45.827
12	Niccolo Antonelli	Honda	13	30'18.250	48.899
13	Stefano Valtulini	Mahindra	13	30'18.999	49.648
14	Lorenzo Petrarca	Mahindra	13	30'19.193	49.842
15	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Honda	13	30'44.514	1'15.163
16	Lorenzo dalla Porta	KTM	12	29'35.775	1 lap
17	Brad Binder	KTM	10	29'36.999	3 laps
	Maria Herrera	KTM	13	29'43.144	13.793
	Jules Danilo	Honda	6	13'47.514	7 laps
	Jorge Navarro	Honda	5	13'28.243	8 laps
	Albert Arenas	Peugeot	3	7'00.696	10 laps
	Joan Mir	KTM	2	4'37.509	11 laps
	Tatsuki Suzuki	Mahindra	2	4'42.167	11 laps
	Andrea Migno	KTM	2	5'32.115	11 laps
	Nicolo Bulega	KTM	1	4'23.960	12 laps
	Jorge Martin	Mahindra	0
	Aron Canet	Honda	0
	Philipp Ottl	KTM	0
	Juan Francisco Guevara	KTM	0
	Adam Norrodin	Honda	0
	Ayumu Sasaki	Honda	0