The Championship chase goes down to the final three races as Kiandra Ramadhipa emerged victorious from a Buriram Race 1 blockbuster. The Indonesian won for the second time this season in a six-rider fight for the win, with Riichi Takahira claiming a crucial P2 ahead of third place Ryota Ogiwara as Zen Mitani’s P5 sees his points advantage come down to 62 with 75 left on the table.

Ogiwara grabbed the holeshot from pole position but right from the word go, the lead and podium positions changed lap by lap, corner by corner. After the opening few laps, Ogiwara and Mitani threatened to pull clear of the pack, but that attempt was thwarted by Kiattisak Singhapong as the Thai star reeled in the Japanese duo – and brought Takahira and Farish Hafiy with him.

At this stage, Ramadhipa was over a second behind the leading quintet but as the top five scrapped, the Indonesian got his head down and joined the fight with a few laps to go. Then, it was anyone’s game. Heading onto the final lap, Ogiwara led Mitani as the latter then ponced into a title-winning position at Turn 3.

That soon changed though. Mitani went from P1 to P5 in a matter of corners and coming through Turn 11 in the lead was the rider second in the standings – Takahira. As the #9 went defensive, Ogiwara, Mitani and Hafiy were forced onto the grass heading into the final corner. Thankfully, everyone stayed upright, and coming out of Turn 12 in the lead was Ramadhipa. Takahira was just 0.009s behind the #7 as they crossed the line inches apart, with Ogiwara clinching P3 to beat home hero Singhapong, Mitani and Hafiy by less than a tenth.

Three seconds down the road, a fantastic battle unfolded in the fight for P7 and it was won by Alfonsi Daquigan. 8th place went the way of Rikki Henry, as Seiryu Ikegami and Archie Schmidt rounded out the Race 1 top 10.

What a race. Mitani’s wait to be crowned Champion goes on, but Sunday unearths another chance. 62 points is the #2’s lead, and if he leaves Thailand with 50 or more, he’ll be Champion. Tune into Race 2 at 09:45 local time (UTC+7) on YouTube to find out if Mitani’s dream is realised, or if we’ll head to Malaysia with the title still up for grabs.