Another clean sweep of circuit records and a fifth victory for Brad Binder as the curtain comes down on the remarkable first Triumph triple-powered Moto2™ season

The 2019 Moto2™ World Championship powered by Triumph has proved an incredible success, and that continued in the Valencia season finale with another clean sweep of circuit records as the 765cc triple has redefined the class this season.

After Jorge Martin took an early race lead, his Red Bull KTM Ajo teammate Brad Binder assumed charge in a tense battle with Dynavolt Intact GP’s Thomas Luthi. The pair were fighting tooth-and-nail for the race win, and also for second position in the World Championship. Each taking turns at the front, it was ultimately Binder who eked out a margin and took his fifth victory of the season, equal best with recently-crowned World Champion Álex Márquez of EG 0,0 Marc VDS.

In an incredibly closely-fought season, nearly half of the grid have qualified on the front row over the 19 races and there have been six winners and 13 different podium-finishers.

The records continued to fall in Valencia too, with the tenth clean-sweep of lap record, outright circuit best and top speed. It means a total of 14 new lap records, 12 outright circuit best laps, and 18 top speeds have been set in 2019, including 301.8km/h in Australia. A new record has been set using Triumph power at 16 of the 19 races this year – two of the remaining three were rain-interrupted and Misano had been resurfaced and was markedly less grippy than previously.

After more than 300,000 km of running, Marquez took his first Moto2™ world crown, three points ahead of Binder who was just nine points ahead of Luthi. Those results achieved from a maximum haul of 475 championship points. Flexbox HP40 took the Team crown by just four points, and Fabio di Giannantonio was crowned Rookie of the Year in Valencia.

Steve Sargent, Triumph’s Chief Product Officer, said: “Our first season has gone so fast since the opening round in Qatar, and we are delighted with the way everything has evolved – from the closeness of racing and the number of different riders on the podium to the reliability and outright performance with so many records falling to our 765cc triple power. It’s been an incredible season and one we are very proud of. Congratulations again to Alex Marquez and team VDS for his incredible championship win, and to Sito Pon’s Flexbox HP40 team for finishing top in the team standings in 2019.  It was also a joy for fans to see just how closely fought second place in the championship was, with Brad Binder finally securing this accolade just 2 laps from the close of the entire season!
We’d like to add our huge thanks to all the teams and riders for their role in making Moto2 this year so exciting. We’re already looking forward to 2020!”

The Triumph Moto2™ 765cc race engine is a development of the class-leading Street Triple RS 765cc road motorcycle and produces more than 140PS and the same visceral soundtrack.

 

ENDS                       

(For further information contact Tom Robinson on Tom.Robinson@Triumph.co.uk )

Notes to Editors

About Triumph

  • The Triumph Moto2™ 765cc race engine is a development of the class-leading Street Triple RS 765cc road motorcycle with the same visceral soundtrack.
  • First established in 1902, Triumph Motorcycles celebrated 115 years of motorcycle manufacture in 2017. For more than three decades, Triumph Motorcycles has been based in Hinckley, Leicestershire, and has produced iconic bikes that perfectly blend authentic design, character, charisma and performance.
  • Building around 65,000 bikes per year, Triumph is the largest British motorcycle manufacturer and has around 650 dealers across the world.
  • This focus, innovation and engineering passion has today created a broad range of bikes suited to all motorcycle riders, including the iconic new Scrambler 1200, epic Speed Triple, the game changing all new Street Triple 765, the class defining Tiger 900, transcontinental Tiger 1200, iconic Triumph Bonneville family including the stunning Speed Twin, Bonneville Bobber, legendary Thruxton, accessible Street Twin, Street Scrambler and iconic Bonneville T120 and T100, plus an exciting and accessible A2 range of Triumph motorcycles.
  • Triumph currently employs around 2,000 personnel worldwide and has subsidiary operations in the UK, North America, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, Sweden (Scandinavia), Benelux, Brazil, India and Thailand as well as a network of independent distributors. Triumph has manufacturing facilities in Hinckley, Leicestershire, and Thailand plus CKD facilities in Brazil and India.
  • The Triumph Bonneville, famously named to celebrate Triumph’s 1956 land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, was the original British superbike and a race-winner straight out of the crate, chosen by famous motorcyclists of the past for its legendary handling, style, and character. It’s that handling, character and style, married to modern rider-focused technology that makes the new Bonneville family THE authentic modern classic choice today.
  • Triumph has a glorious racing history, competing in and winning races in almost every class and field of motorcycle sporting achievement. From winning the second ever Isle of Man TT in 1908, through to 1960s road and track domination in Europe and America, right up to contemporary racing achievements with the 675cc Triumph triple powered 2014 Daytona 200 win, the 2014 Isle of Man Supersports TT win, the 2014 and 2015 British Supersports titles and World SuperSport racing, and again this year, with another victory at the Isle of Man Supersports TT, piloted by Peter Hickman. And of course with the new generation 765cc triple engine powering the 2019 Moto2™ championship, Triumph’s racing legend continues.