Aron Canet earned an impressive victory in a red-flagged Thai Moto2 race which saw Ai Ogura crowned world champion.
Canet had been hoping to postpone Ogura’s title celebrations for another week, but a second place finish for the Japanese rider was enough for him to seal the title with two rounds to spare.
Ogura got a great start from pole position to hold onto the lead ahead of Canet and Ramirez in the first turn.
Canet also got a good start from the front row, and was able to outdrag Ogura on the run to Turn 2 to take control of the race.
Fermin Aldeguer made a mistake on the opening lap which put Tony Arbolino out of the race, ending a miserable weekend for the Italian, while MarcVDS teammate Filip Salac was also pushed wide.
A divebomb in the final corner from Alonso Lopez promoted the SpeedUp rider up to third, ahead of Diogo Moreira and Ogura.
The championship leader was then demoted down to sixth behind Jake Dixon and Darryn Binder as his championship charge struggled in the early stages.
Lopez had been running well in third but ran wide, which saw him drop out of the fight and down to 12th, which allowed Ramirez onto the rostrum.
Ogura looked to move back into a championship contending position and attempted a move on Binder for fifth which forced the South African wide.
The stewards investigated Ogura’s move but decided that there would be no further action taken against the Japanese rider.
The championship leader continued to move forward and was able to overtake Dixon and Moreira to push himself onto the podium and firmly in control.
Home hero Somkiat Chantra recovered well from a lowly qualifying and continued to progress through the field, fighting his way through the group into sixth.
The Thai rider was then able to pass Izan Guevara and Diogo Moreira as he looked to fight for an unlikely podium in the dying stages of the race.
Rain continued to hit the circuit and race leader Canet signalled that the race needed to be red flagged due to track conditions.
Less than a lap later the race was stopped with two laps to go meaning there would be no restart.
It was Canet who took the victory, but Ogura became the 2024 Moto2 champion after taking second.
By winning his Moto2 title in Buriram, Ogura became the first world champion to come through the Asia Talent Cup system.
Ramirez rounded out the podium ahead of Chantra, who was clearly disappointed with the decision to red flag as potential for a home podium was lost.
Moreira came home in fifth ahead of the Aspar pairing of Guevara and Dixon in sixth and seventh..
The Gresini duo of Albert Arenas and Manuel Gonzalez were eighth and ninth, as Deniz Oncu rounded out the top 10.
Lopez was able to recover from his mistake but could only finish 11th, while Sergio Garcia was 12th.
Ayumu Sasaki finished the race in 13th, narrowly ahead of a redeeming ride from Salac in 14th.
Jorge Navarro, who was standing in for the injured Joe Roberts, completed the points finishers in 15th.
