Moto2™. Luca Marini (SKY Racing Team VR46) breezes to glory in PTT Thailand Grand Prix.

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The second race of the day at the PTT Thailand Grand Prix saw the Moto2™ Championship fight ignite in the heat of Buriram at the Chang International Circuit. With the rain still holding off despite dark clouds, it was an intriguing race which saw Luca Marini (SKY Racing Team VR46) storm to a first victory in almost a year, whilst Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) and Iker Lecuona (American Racing KTM) locked out the podium places on a day where Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) had no answer for his opposition, losing points in his championship lead.

Lights-out and down to Turn 1, it was front row starter Tetsuta Nagashima (ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team) who stole the march but went wide on the exit of Turn 1, allowing Alex Marquez to come back through on the blast down into Turn 3. Luca Marini was soon through into third at the final corner, whilst Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo), Augusto Fernandez (FlexBox HP 40) and Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) queued up behind. It was a disastrous start for home-hero Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), who started 12th but was 21st after Lap 1.

The Italian soon got through into second and Marini now set off after Alex Marquez at the front of the field. Nagashima was a sitting duck and by the end of the second lap of the race, Iker Lecuona and Remy Gardner – Nagashima’s teammate – had got ahead of the Japanese rider, who once again was struggling with race pace after a strong qualifying. The Japanese rider would go on to fade further.

Lecuona may have got third occupied but he wanted more, and he set off after Alex Marquez. Luca Marini hammered in relentlessly fast lap times, the only rider able to go into the 1’36.0 bracket whilst the battled heated up behind him. Marquez soon found himself caught by Lecuona, with Brad Binder and Augusto Fernandez closing in behind.

Further back, the ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team began to fade away, with Remy Gardner not being able to do anything about Jorge Martin in front of him. Soon, the Australian had Tom Lüthi (Dynavolt Intact GP) in front of him, who in-turn was struggling, witnessing his Moto2™ title aspirations going away. Nicolo Bulega (SKY Racing Team VR46) was up to eighth ahead of Gardner too.

With 10 laps to go, the battle for second erupted and after numerous laps of stalking, Lecuona made his move for second stick at Turn 6, just half a lap after he first tried at the final corner. Marquez was now vulnerable and had to resist the onslaught of the chasing pack. However, he wasn’t able to hold off Brad Binder and the South African got ahead of Marquez two laps later. The fight between Marquez and title rival Fernandez was now on the horizon.

Luca Marini was untroubled out front and Lecuona had now been closed down by Binder for second. However, the championship battle was for fourth, with Fernandez and Marquez beginning to scrap and swap paint with just five laps left. The two duelled but at the same time, Binder was now challenging Lecuona, with the two fighting hard over the podium allowing Fernandez to sniff an opportunity at the podium.

On the final lap, an imperious Luca Marini romped to his first win in 2019 but the final corner in Buriram provided yet more drama, as Brad Binder went around the outside of Lecuona to make it to second when it counted, whilst Lecuona was just about able to hold onto to his first podium of the season. Augusto Fernandez pinched fourth whilst Alex Marquez had to settle for fifth.

Behind the top five there was plenty of action, with Jorge Martin taking sixth and his best result of 2019. Lüthi came home in seventh ahead of Bulega, whilst unbelievably, from the depths of despair on the opening lap when he was down in 21st, Somkiat Chantra had some how put in one of the rides of the day to finish in ninth, pipping Marco Bezzecchi (Red Bull KTM Tech 3) at the final corner to get the home crowd going crazy in the stands. Second in the Championship coming into the round, Jorge Navarro (Beta Tools Speed Up) suffered a wretched race and finished down in 17th.

There were crashes throughout the race, including Stefano Manzi (MV Agusta Temporary Forward) at Turn 5, soon to be joined a few laps later Xavi Vierge (EG 0,0 Marc VDS). Early Championship leader Lorenzo Baldassarri (FlexBox HP 40) also crashed, having run inside the top ten before tumbling at Turn 12. Britain’s Sam Lowes (Federal Oil Gresini Moto2) had a miserable end to a testing round, as he crashed out at the fast Turn 8 in the final third of the race.

PTT THAILAND GRAND PRIX

Moto2 Race Classification 2019.

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1	25	10	Luca MARINI	ITA	SKY Racing Team VR46	Kalex	169.5	38’40.882
2	20	41	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM	169.3	+2.296
3	16	27	Iker LECUONA	SPA	American Racing KTM	KTM	169.3	+2.544
4	13	40	Augusto FERNANDEZ	SPA	FLEXBOX HP 40	Kalex	169.3	+2.585
5	11	73	Alex MARQUEZ	SPA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Kalex	169.3	+2.919
6	10	88	Jorge MARTIN	SPA	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM	169.0	+6.839
7	9	12	Thomas LUTHI	SWI	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex	168.6	+12.500
8	8	11	Nicolo BULEGA	ITA	SKY Racing Team VR46	Kalex	168.5	+13.669
9	7	35	Somkiat CHANTRA	THA	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	Kalex	168.4	+14.622
10	6	72	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	KTM	168.4	+14.726
11	5	33	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	168.4	+14.873
12	4	87	Remy GARDNER	AUS	ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team	Kalex	168.3	+15.952
13	3	5	Andrea LOCATELLI	ITA	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	168.3	+16.095
14	2	23	Marcel SCHROTTER	GER	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex	168.3	+16.603
15	1	45	Tetsuta NAGASHIMA	JPN	ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team	Kalex	168.2	+17.147
16		77	Dominique AEGERTER	SWI	MV Agusta Temporary Forward	MV Agusta	168.1	+18.707
17		9	Jorge NAVARRO	SPA	Beta Tools Speed Up	Speed Up	168.0	+20.985
18		21	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	Beta Tools Speed Up	Speed Up	167.8	+23.103
19		96	Jake DIXON	GBR	Gaviota Angel Nieto Team	KTM	167.6	+25.393
20		64	Bo BENDSNEYDER	NED	NTS RW Racing GP	NTS	167.5	+27.715
21		2	Jesko RAFFIN	SWI	NTS RW Racing GP	NTS	167.0	+34.863
22		65	Philipp OETTL	GER	Red Bull KTM Tech 3	KTM	167.0	+35.014
23		47	Adam NORRODIN	MAL	Petronas Sprinta Racing	Kalex	165.3	+58.666
24		20	Dimas EKKY PRATAMA	INA	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	Kalex	163.9	+1’18.435
25		7	Lorenzo BALDASSARRI	ITA	FLEXBOX HP 40	Kalex	156.4	1 Lap
Not Classified
		18	Xavi CARDELUS	AND	Gaviota Angel Nieto Team	KTM	162.9	1 Lap
		22	Sam LOWES	GBR	Federal Oil Gresini Moto2	Kalex	168.0	7 Laps
		54	Mattia PASINI	ITA	Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2	Kalex	162.6	11 Laps
		3	Lukas TULOVIC	GER	Kiefer Racing	KTM	164.1	12 Laps
		97	Xavi VIERGE	SPA	EG 0,0 Marc VDS	Kalex	168.7	14 Laps
		62	Stefano MANZI	ITA	MV Agusta Temporary Forward	MV Agusta	167.6	19 Laps
		16	Joe ROBERTS	USA	American Racing KTM	KTM	164.0	22 Laps

Moto2 World Standing 2019.

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Nation	Points
1	Alex MARQUEZ	Kalex	SPA	224
2	Augusto FERNANDEZ	Kalex	SPA	184
3	Brad BINDER	KTM	RSA	180
4	Thomas LUTHI	Kalex	SWI	178
5	Jorge NAVARRO	Speed Up	SPA	175
6	Luca MARINI	Kalex	ITA	151
7	Lorenzo BALDASSARRI	Kalex	ITA	138
8	Marcel SCHROTTER	Kalex	GER	118
9	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	Speed Up	ITA	94
10	Enea BASTIANINI	Kalex	ITA	86
11	Iker LECUONA	KTM	SPA	71
12	Remy GARDNER	Kalex	AUS	64
13	Tetsuta NAGASHIMA	Kalex	JPN	64
14	Sam LOWES	Kalex	GBR	60
15	Xavi VIERGE	Kalex	SPA	59
16	Jorge MARTIN	KTM	SPA	47
17	Andrea LOCATELLI	Kalex	ITA	45
18	Nicolo BULEGA	Kalex	ITA	40
19	Mattia PASINI	Kalex	ITA	27
20	Somkiat CHANTRA	Kalex	THA	20
21	Marco BEZZECCHI	KTM	ITA	17
22	Stefano MANZI	MV Agusta	ITA	13
23	Dominique AEGERTER	MV Agusta	SWI	12
24	Simone CORSI	NTS	ITA	10
25	Bo BENDSNEYDER	NTS	NED	6
26	Jake DIXON	KTM	GBR	4
27	Joe ROBERTS	KTM	USA	4
28	Lukas TULOVIC	KTM	GER	3
29	Khairul Idham PAWI	Kalex	MAL	3
30	Jesko RAFFIN	NTS	SWI	3
31	Steven ODENDAAL	NTS	RSA
32	Jonas FOLGER	Kalex	GER
33	Philipp OETTL	KTM	GER
34	Xavi CARDELUS	KTM	AND
35	Dimas EKKY PRATAMA	Kalex	INA
36	Gabriele RUIU	Kalex	ITA
37	Adam NORRODIN	Kalex	MAL
38	Andi Farid IZDIHAR	Kalex	INA
39	Teppei NAGOE	Kalex	JPN
40	Gerry SALIM	Kalex	INA

Credits : Photos and content courtesy of motogp.com

Moto2™. Luca Marini (SKY Racing Team VR46) breezes to glory in PTT Thailand Grand Prix.

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PTT THAILAND GRAND PRIX

Moto2 World Standing 2019.

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