Portugal’s Miguel Oliveira won his fifth race of the season in a dramatic Moto3 Grand Prix Sunday to keep the world title championship battle alive after leader Danny Kent finished seventh at Malaysia’s tough Sepang Circuit.
Oliveira on a KTM finished the race in 40 minutes 33.277 seconds, followed by South Africa’s Brad Binder (KTM), who came in 0.089sec later and Spaniard Jorge Navarro on a Honda who finished 0.273sec after Oliveira.
Kent, who qualified ninth after a penalty, failed to seize at least a fifth position which would have allowed him to become Britain’s first GP motorcycle world champion in 38 years in Malaysia.
The Honda rider, who clocked 40min 33.867sec, was placed seventh.
He only needed to score 10 points more than rival Oliveira to claim the title in the season’s penultimate race.
Valencia will host the final race on November 8.
The last British rider to win a world title in any GP class was Barry Sheene on his 500cc Suzuki in 1977.
Opting to ride safe, Kent shadowed the top riders and only opened his throttle after lap 15 of the 18 lap race but it was too late to grab his title in Malaysia as there were almost a half a dozen riders ahead of him.
The adrenaline-fuelled race delighted the large, cheering crowd with other riders racing in tight packs but resulted in a series of crashes and collisions especially among the front racers.
The intense race saw relentless bouts of nail-biting overtaking especially on the tight corners of the 5.5 kilometre (3.4 mile) Sepang circuit which is one of the toughest of the year.