JAKARTA - Alex Rins presented Suzuki's first win of the season after he beat Australia's final lap drama Grand Prix (GP) at Phillip Island Circuit on Sunday and Francesco Bagnaia emerged as the leader of the new standings.
Taking pressure from Rins and Marc Marquez, Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia widened slightly as he led the race on the final lap, paving the way for the two riders.
Rins sealed the victory by touching the finish line 0.186 seconds ahead of Marquez, who also impressed on his return from injury, and Bagnaia had to settle for completing the podium in third place, according to the official MotoGP website.
Despite failing to secure full points, Bagnaia has now taken the top spot in the standings as its main competitor, Fabio Quartararo of the Yamaha team crashed and failed to finish in the race.
Starting from the second row, Quartararo again encountered problems with tires, such as in Thailand, as he was overwhelmed to find a grip and several times wide around the corner in the early laps on Phillip Island.
Yamaha's concerns came after the third lap when the French rider made a braking error as he headed for Miller's corner to the exit of the track and was thrown into 22nd position.
The drama for the title was getting bigger when Fabio Quartararo fell while driving alone behind. The Yamaha driver lost his grip at corner 2 and had to find a fact he was removed from the top of the standings while walking on the ceiling.
Quartararo's title hunt met a tough road, especially upon his return from the summer break.
The failure to finish in Australia Quartararo adds to a streak of poor performances by the Yamaha rider where he has garnered just eight points from the last four races.
With that result, Bagnaia holds the standings with 233 points, 14 points ahead of Quartararo with two races remaining. Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro still has a chance in the race for the world title after finishing P9 in Australia and keeping his position in third place with 24 points from the top.
"I played it safe from the start, because I had a little trouble with the level control of the front tire so I didn't start well," said Bagnaia, quoted from Antara, Sunday, October 16.
"After seeing Fabio knocked out of the race, I said it's okay to win today, then Rins poked forward, but it doesn't matter."
Gresini's Enea Bastianini is also still likely to be ranked fourth with a distance of 42 points from Bagnaia after finishing P5 today.
Meanwhile, the hopes of host Jack Miller challenging the title were dashed after he was involved in a collision with LCR Honda rider Alex Marquez on lap 9.
VR46 team rider Marco Bezzecki has the right to lock in the best rookie title this year after finishing P4, while polesitter Jorge Martin has to settle for finishing P7 behind Valentino Rossi's half-brother Luca Marini (VR46).
The fight for the world title will continue at the Sepang Circuit, Malaysia next week before the closing series in Valencia, Spain on November 6.
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