Red Bull Ajo KTM rider Brad Binder converted his front row start into victory at the Sepang International circuit, but the day belongs to Marc VDS rider Alex Marquez with the Spaniard wrapping up the 2019 Moto2 World Championship, securing the title with a second-place finish in Malaysia.
Coming into the race, Marquez knew that a win would be enough to win the World Championship with Tom Luthi the only rider within 25 points, but it was third placed Brad Binder who got the whole shot off the line. The South African pushed from the off and tried to force a mistake from Marquez who had slotted into second place.
The mistake came from Binder, running wide allowing the Spaniard into the lead and looking as if he was going to hand the title to the Spaniard. Binder wasted little time in fighting back and soon retook the lead with a hard move on Marquez into turn one, sitting the Marc VDS rider up.
Behind the front two, Luthi moved past Tetsuta Nagashima and knew that he needed to catch and pass the World Championship leader to have any chance of taking the title challenge to Valencia.
Whilst the Swiss rider caught Marquez, he couldn’t ever bridge the final half a second needed to mount a serious challenge, leaving Marquez to sit behind Binder and take the Moto2 World Championship crown.
Xavi Vierge was fourth on the second Marc VDS bike, ahead of Jorge Navarro and Iker Lecuona who were fifth and sixth respectively. Lorenzo Baldassarri was seventh, with Nagashima, Marcel Schrotter and Luca Marini rounding out the top ten.
