Luca Marini takes his first Moto2™ victory under Triumph power, and sets a new lap record in the process

Sky Racing Team VR46’s Luca Marini took his first victory in the Moto2™ era powered by Triumph this weekend, and his second career victory, with a dominant performance amid sweltering conditions at the Chang International Circuit in Thailand.

Championship leader Alex Marquez riding for the EG 0.0 Marc VDS team, started on pole, and converted his outright lap record-setting qualifying performance into a strong race lead for the opening two laps until Marini, who started fourth, put him under pressure and made his move for the front. Once clear at the head of the field, the Italian didn’t look back and took a decisive win, making him the sixth different victor of 2019.

As the rain stayed away, the temperature reached 33 degrees Celsius and the battle for the remaining podium places was just as hot. As Alex came under further pressure, the battle for second became a four-way fight. American Racing’s Iker Lecuona had a very impressive ride to come from tenth to second by lap 14, and it was only on the final lap that he lost that position to Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Brad Binder, who started even further down the order in 12th. Still, it was Lecuona’s first podium of the Triumph Moto2™ era.

In the second year of Moto2™ visiting the Buriram circuit, for the eighth time this season a clean sweep of records fell to the power of the Triumph 765cc triple – the outright circuit best, set in qualifying; the lap record, and the top speed at 281.9km/h. Remarkably, further demonstrating the closeness of competition this year, four riders all recorded exactly the same top speed: Sky Racing Team VR46 pairing Nicolo Bulega and Luca Marini, ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team’s Remy Gardner, and Italtrans Racing Team’s Andrea Locatelli.

Steve Sargent, Triumph’s Chief Product Officer, said: “It's fantastic to have a new Moto2 winner using Triumph power, so our congratulations to Luca and the Sky Racing VR46 team! We also welcome a new rider to the podium for the first time, so more congratulations to Iker and American Racing - joining Brad on his 6th trip to the podium, it's great to see the closeness of the class rewarding more riders. And of course it's satisfying to continue the clean sweep of records this season, with outright, lap and top speed records at this track all falling to our 765cc Triumph triple. Thailand is an important region for Triumph and many of our staff attended the race. They were given another fine display of racers pushing the boundaries and beating records.”

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.

After the heat of Thailand, the Moto2™ series has one week off before the longest single run of races of the season – a back-to-back triple of Japan, Australia and Malaysia, starting on 18-20 October.

#PoweredByTriumph #TriumphOfficial

 

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 and is producing more than 140PS and 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 800, 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.