Just a week after the 2018 MotoGP World Championship was sewn up by Honda's Marc Marquez in Japan, a second title could be secured.
Sky VR46 rider Francesco Bagnaia arrives at Phillip Island for the Australian Grand Prix with his first match point in the race for the Moto2 crown.
Bagnaia comes to Australia with a 37-point advantage over Ajo KTM's Miguel Oliveira, after the Italian was awarded victory, and the 25 points, at Motegi when on-the-road winner Fabio Quartararo was disqualified for a tyre pressure irregularity.
Bagnaia's simplest permutation to fulfil to become the second-successive VR46 Academy rider to win the Moto2 crown would be to take victory at Phillip Island, while Oliveira is unable to finish higher than fifth.
Bagnaia has eight wins to his credit this season, while Oliveira has only two. In qualifying, Bagnaia has put his VR46 Kalex into the top six in all races since Argentina, while Oliveira's Saturday form has been wildly inconsistent, with the Portuguese rider only starting inside the top 10 eight times this year and from the front row just once.
Second for Bagnaia this Sunday and ninth for Oliveira would see the Italian crowned champion, likewise if he is third and Oliveira is no higher than 13th, or if he is fourth and Oliveira fails to score.
While Oliveira's qualifying form has been lacking, he has more than made up for it on race day, with top six finishes in all bar one race this year, so contrasting Saturday fortunes for the pair may not stunt Oliveira's hopes.
However, Bagnaia has been a podium finisher since the summer break and has shown no signs of relenting that form.
But this is a phase of the season the KTM flourished in its debut campaign last year, with Oliveria winning at Phillip Island, Sepang and Valencia, while team-mate Brad Binder joined him on the podium at all three.
Oliveira also understands the pressures of a World Championship battle, having been in the hunt for the 2015 Moto3 title.This is Bagnaia's first year in grand prix racing where he has been a title contender, so it is unclear how that pressure will affect him.
But the Italian does have an incredible support network around him in the form of the VR46 academy and a boss who knows a thing or two about winning championships.
Intriguingly, both title protagonists will have strong tail gunners on track with them. Bagnaia's team-mate Luca Marini enjoyed a run of three back-to-back podiums either side of the summer break, and did Bagnaia a huge favour by mugging Oliveira on the final lap in Thailand to give him an extra four points to five he was about to take out of the Portuguese rider.
But Binder has been the stronger stablemate of late, with victory in Aragon and two top five finishes in the previous two races, while Marini could only manage 11th and ninth at Aragon and in Japan. Bagnaia does have another ally on the grid, in the form of Pons' Lorenzo Baldassarri.
While the Italian will have his own results to think of, it is unlikely he will put his fellow VR46 Academy member and flatmate in too much danger should they come face-to-face in the race. Throw in the wildcards of Marc VDS duo Alex Marquez and Joan Mir, as well as Intact GP's Marcel Schrotter and Xavi Vierge, and the out-for-revenge Quartararo, and the fate of the championship for both protagonists could shift dramatically – not least at Phillip Island, where the battles are always multi-rider barnstormers.
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