The Championship leader sports a 32-point lead going into the finale at Lusail after last corner shenanigans and a track limits penalty shake up the order
The final Moto4 Asia Cup race at Sepang was a cracker with Japan’s Hayato Chishiki taking honours in an epic encounter against his Championship rivals. Crossing the line in second, he inherited the win from Bintang Pranata who crossed the line first but exceeded track limits on the final lap, therefore having a maiden victory taken away. Rounding out the podium, a strong showing from Resky Yusuf saw the Indonesian take a second career podium. After final corner contact, Waku Kunitate’s race ended with a big highside and whilst he was able to walk away, he slips to third in the Championship and 40 points behind leader Chishiki.
Getting underway, the holeshot went to polesitter Kotaro Togashi, resisting home winner from Race 1 Qabil Irfan. By the end of the opening lap, Chishiki had worked his way into the podium places but the battle was only just starting as a group of seven riders went in pursuit of Sepang honours. Togashi, Irfan, Pranata, Chishiki, Yusuf, Kunitate and Haruki Matsuyama battling hard. There was drama further down the order for Teerin Fleming who crashed out at the start of Lap 5 having just set the fast lap of the race, whilst Muhammad Badly was a faller at Turn 14; Badly re-joined but was later instructed to retire.
The seven-rider scrap came down to the final lap and the final corner; nobody wanted to lead onto the back straight but Kunitate took the reins. He was slipstreamed by Chishiki and Pranata, both going either side and it was the Indonesian who got the job done at Turn 15. Contact between Togashi and Kunitate ended the latter’s race with just a few hundred metres to go whilst Pranata held on to take the chequered flag ahead of Chishiki, only for it to be reversed in parc ferme due to the #3 exceeding track limits at Turn 14. Yusuf rounded out the podium in what was one of the all-time classic Moto4 Asia Cup races.
The grand finale awaits in Qatar! The final round is from Lusail next weekend, don’t miss it!
