Franco Morbidelli was under no pressure in today’s Moto2 race at the Sepang MotoGP round after title rival Tom Luthi was pronounced unfit after a massive highside in qualifying yesterday, so it was a cruise to third place at the world championship for the EG0,0 Marc VDS rider.
The Italian claimed his 11th podium in a superb season of racing which have included eight victories in the 17 races so far with just the final GP of the season at Valencia remaining.
On the slow down lap Morbidelli - wearing a “Franky Says Relax” championship shirt - celebrated his win trackside with the team, who were joined by nine times World Champion Valentino Rossi.
Morbidelli, 22, is the first Italian rider to win the intermediate class championship since 2008 when Marco Simoncelli won the 250cc title and the second Moto2 Champion for Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS after Tito Rabat’s 2014 title.
“This is an incredible feeling and now the reality is sinking in after the race. I am so happy for myself but also sorry for Tom Lüthi who could not race today. However I have done a great season with fantastic support from my team even though we suffered some down days. I wanted to make a good race today and get on the podium on the day we secured the championship,” he said.
The race was won by KTM’s Miguel Oliveira with team-mate Brad Binder in second place and was the Red Bull Ajo’s second successive one-two in the class.
Oliveira’s race followed the same script as a week ago at Phillip Island. A great start allowed him to take the holeshot, and within two laps he had already established a lead of 1 second from the pursuing group. Oliveira gave his rivals no chance of catching him, setting new circuit records and upping his advantage to as much as 4 seconds. The Portuguese has managed to remain calm when the rain began, four laps from the end, and crossed the finish line with a two second lead.
“Today I had to give everything, I can hardly speak. This was not the strategy I had in mind before we started, as Franco and Brad had a very good pace, so my plan was to ride behind them. But I saw that I could give a little more on the first few laps and I went for it. I gave everything I had and I am very proud to have succeeded. At the beginning of the season I did not imagine that we would be able to achieve these results. I thought we would be competitive but not that we would do so well. We deserve this end to the season,” said the Portugese rider.
Binder had a more difficult race. From the start the South African was part of the chasing group, along with two other riders fighting for second position. As the laps went by, the South African stuck on the wheel of newly crowned World Champion Franco Morbidelli until he saw the flags indicating rain. Given the possibility of the race being cut short, Binder took a risk and passed the Italian for his second consecutive runner-up spot. Coincidentally, the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders both took this same result two years ago in Sepang, when part of the structure’s Moto3 team.
