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Thomas Luthi postpones Stefan Bradl's Moto2 title celebrations by winning at Sepang

Thomas Luthi denied Stefan Bradl a chance to wrap up the Moto2 world championship by winning at Sepang, as Bradl's title rival Marc Marquez had to miss the race

Injuries from his violent crash in Friday practice forced Marquez to sit out the Malaysian round. Since the crash on an unflagged wet patch right at the start of opening practice, Marquez had only completed two qualifying laps, and this morning it was finally confirmed that he was not fit enough to start.

That meant Bradl could win the championship with a race victory, and for much of the distance that result looked likely, as the German quickly passed polesitter Luthi's Interwetten Suter and then established a one-second advantage.

But Luthi closed in on the Kiefer Kalex and slid into the lead at the final corner with two laps to go.

Bradl stayed on his tail and might have retaliated, but the race was then red-flagged slightly early after Axel Pons had a heavy crash, ensuring Luthi claimed his first Moto2 win and leaving Bradl 23 points ahead of Marquez heading for Valencia.

Pol Espargaro took third place for Speed Up, with Alex de Angelis battling through to fourth on the JIR Motobi, just in front of Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP Suter), Mika Kallio (Marc VDS Suter), Michele Pirro (Gresini Moriwaki) and Aleix Espargaro (Pons Kalex). Yuki Takahashi had been third on the other Gresini bike initially, before going off.

Results - 17 laps:

Pos  Rider                Team/Bike               Time/Gap
 1.  Thomas Luthi         Interwetten Suter     36m35.114s
 2.  Stefan Bradl         Kiefer Kalex            + 0.187s
 3.  Pol Espargaro        Speed Up FTR            + 7.465s
 4.  Alex de Angelis      JIR Motobi              + 9.127s
 5.  Dominique Aegerter   Technomag-CIP Suter    + 11.494s
 6.  Mika Kallio          Marc VDS Suter         + 11.903s
 7.  Michele Pirro        Gresini Moriwaki       + 12.568s
 8.  Aleix Espargaro      Pons Kalex             + 12.963s
 9.  Andrea Iannone       Speed Master Suter     + 14.098s
10.  Scott Redding        Marc VDS Suter         + 16.697s
11.  Esteve Rabat         Blusens FTR            + 19.568s
12.  Kenan Sofuoglu       Technomag-CIP Suter    + 24.885s
13.  Jules Cluzel         Forward Suter          + 25.345s
14.  Mike di Meglio       Tech 3                 + 26.696s
15.  Xavier Simeon        Tech 3                 + 32.806s
16.  Joan Olive           Castello FTR           + 32.979s
17.  Jordi Torres         Aspar Suter            + 33.179s
18.  Mohamad Zamri Baba   Petronas Moriwaki      + 36.497s
19.  Ivan Moreno          Aspar Suter            + 40.569s
20.  Hafizh Syahrin       Petronas Moriwaki      + 56.756s
21.  Randy Krummenacher   Kiefer Kalex         + 1m05.966s
22.  Robertino Pietri     Italtrans Suter      + 1m06.110s
23.  Mashel Al Naimi      QMMF Moriwaki        + 1m17.083s
24.  Axel Pons            Pons Kalex           + 1m19.415s
25.  Kenny Noyes          Avintia FTR              + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Raffaele de Rosa     Forward Suter            12 laps
     Mattia Pasini        Ioda FTR                  8 laps
     Santiago Hernandez   SAG FTR                   7 laps
     Apiwat Wongthananon  SAG FTR                   7 laps
     Valentin Debise      Speed Up FTR              6 laps
     Yuki Takahashi       Gresini Moriwaki          5 laps
     Claudio Corti        Italtrans Suter           3 laps
     Simone Corsi         Ioda FTR                  3 laps
     Anthony West         MZ                         1 lap
     Max Neukirchner      MZ                         1 lap
     Yonny Hernandez      Blusens FTR                  DSQ

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Previous article Thomas Luthi beats Stefan Bradl to Sepang Moto2 pole as injured Marc Marquez settles for back row
Next article Gresini's Michele Pirro and Yuki Takahashi lead Moto2 grid as Stefan Bradl is confirmed as champion

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