Thomas Lüthi
After 4 seasons in the Moto3 category Championship, Bagnaia moved up to Moto2, racing for SKY Racing Team VR46, where he last rode in 2014, with Stefano Manzi as his teammate. In just his fourth ever Moto2 race at Jerez Bagnaia finished 2nd. He finished 2nd in the next race as well at Le Mans after having qualified in 2nd place, missing pole position to Thomas Lüthi by just 0.026 seconds. Bagnaia took a third podium at Sachsenring, finishing 3rd behind Franco Morbidelli who won the race and Miguel Oliveira who came in second. At Misano Bagnaia originally finished the race 4th behind Dominique Aegerter, Thomas Lüthi, and Hafizh Syahrin however Aegerter was later disqualified promoting him to his 4th podium of the season. He was crowned Moto2 Rookie of the year after the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi. He finished his rookie season with 174 points to place 5th in the Moto2 Championship, scoring points in 16 of the 18 races.