Red Bull KTM’s Miguel Oliveira took his maiden Moto2 win today at the Australian MotoGP round and he was followed across the line by team-mate Brad Binder for the team’s first ever one-two in the class.
The Portuguese rider dominated the race from start to finish. A great start allowed him to take the holeshot, and he held the lead for the remaining 25 laps. With an unmatched pace, Oliveira escaped from Binder and from Franco Morbidelli on the eighth lap, finally crossing the finish line with almost s three-second advantage.
“I could not be more grateful for this victory because when it started to rain I struggled a little. I already had a certain advantage and was aware that the distance I had from the pursuing riders had been reduced, which created a little stress. As you can imagine, it has been the longest race of my life. I’m very happy with the team and with my first victory in the class, the first for KTM and hopefully not the last,” said Oliveira.
Morbidelli, meanwhile, rode a smart race to take third and strengthen his grip on the championship as rival Tom Luthi could only muster a tenth-place finish.
The 22-year-old Italian now leads the championship by 29 points ahead of Luthi with just two races remaining. Morbidelli has 272 points with Luthi on 243. He now has the potential to claim the world title at the next race in Malaysia where he only needs to finish with a 25 point advantage to be crowned champion.
“My target was to get a podium and try to be ahead of Tom Lüthi and score points for the championship and I was pushing hard for this in a long fight with Brad Binder. When Takaaki Nakagami crashed ahead of me I decided that it was the time to take the points for third, I didn’t know his position but I knew Tom was behind me. It was a very good weekend for me, I achieved what I set out to do,” said Morbidelli.
Jesko Raffin (Garage Plus Interwetten) put in an impressive performance for fourth, ahead of another top ride from Motegi podium finisher Xavi Vierge (Tech 3 Racing). Alex Marquez recovered from his moment early in the race to pull clear of a number of riders and take sixth, ahead of Simone Corsi (Speed Up Racing), Aegerter, a solid ride from Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) and Lüthi.
Axel Pons (RW Racing GP), Francesco Bagnaia and teammate Stefano Manzi (Sky Racing Team VR46), Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Racing Team) – despite dislocating his shoulder on Saturday - and home hero Remy Gardner (Tech 3 Racing) completed the points
