Luca Marini took his debut Moto2 victory after fending off Miguel Oliveria in the Malaysian Grand Prix, as VR46 teammate Francesco Bagnaia won the world championship.
Marini hit the front at the start and resisted late pressure from KTM's Oliveira to seal his maiden win, while third for Bagnaia was enough to secure him the 2018 intermediate class title and the second-successive Moto2 crown for the VR46 Academy.
Marini grabbed the holeshot off the line as poleman Alex Marquez dropped to ninth, while Oliveira leaped from seventh to second at the first corner ahead of title rival Bagnaia.
Bagnaia wasted no time in dispatching of Oliveira at Turn 4, though the KTM rider responded at the end of the tour, the pair trading positions again at the first two turns at the start of lap two.
This squabbling allowed Marini to open up a gap of close to a second, which Bagnaia steadily chipped away at over the next handful of laps while Oliveira remained in touch in third.
Oliveira pounced on Bagnaia at Turn 4 on the seventh lap, the Italian offering tame resistance secure in the knowledge conceding a place to the Portuguese rider would still crown the VR46 rider champion.
Marini came under considerable threat from Oliveira as the race reached its closing stages, but the VR46 responded to Oliveira's charge and kept him at bay.
Oliveira could do nothing in the final laps to halt Marini's charge, the Italian holding on for his first win while third for his teammate saw him win the championship.
Bagnaia came under mid-race pressure from Italtrans' Mattia Pasini, but denied his compatriot the opportunity to demote him to fourth and delay his coronation.
Fabio Quartararo led the race for all of one second after an audacious move at the start into Turn 1, and recovered on his Speed Up from running wide to finish fifth ahead of Pons' Lorenzo Baldassarri.
Marquez was unable to display the blistering pace which secure him pole in seventh, with Phillip Island winner Brad Binder, Marcel Schrotter and Joan Mir completing the top 10.
The final points paying positions were filled by Xavi Vierge, Andrea Locatelli, Jorge Navarro, Dominique Aegerter and Sam Lowes.
Remy Gardner was an early podium contender, but the Tech3 rider crashed out of rostrum contention for the second race in a row.
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