Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 team chase second victory in Malaysia
31/10/2018Oliveira and Binder will try to repeat last season’s Sepang 1-2 and continue in the fight for the rider and team titles.
The Moto2 World Championship reaches its penultimate round this weekend, as the series concludes the three-race flyaway stint with the Malaysian GP. Red Bull KTM Ajo currently lead the way in the team standings, and rider Miguel Oliveira is still in contention for the rider title. The team are hoping to repeat the great result from last year in Sepang, when Oliveira and Brad Binder occupied the top two spots.
Oliveira is 36 points behind the current Moto2 World Championship leader. His goal this weekend will be to continue cutting the gap and extend the title race until the last Grand Prix of the year in Valencia. The Portuguese has won at Sepang on two previous occasions: In 2015 in Moto3 and in Moto2 last season.
Binder arrives in Malaysia buoyed by a victory in Australia -his third triumph this season. The South African continues to improve race after race, and has already settled into third place in the standings behind his teammate. Along with Oliveira, Binder will try to bring as many points as possible to Red Bull KTM Ajo, who lead the Team World Championship by 35 points and could seal the title on Sunday.
The race will start at 1:20pm local time -6:20am CET. As happened at Phillip Island, on Friday and Saturday the Moto2 practice sessions will be held just after the Moto3 sessions and before MotoGP.
Circuit information – Sepang International Circuit
Length: 5.543m / 3.444 miles
Width: 25m
Left corners: 5
Right corners: 10
Longest straight: 920m / 0.572 miles
Constructed: 1998
Modified: 2016
44 MIGUEL OLIVEIRA
“After the race last Sunday we have to recover and keep a cool head, because we are still in the fight for the title with two races to go and this is the most important thing -we have to go for it. Last year in Malaysia we took the victory -we also did so in Moto3 in 2015- so we must keep calm and work as we know how in order to make the most of our capabilities. I love this track and Valencia. I think that the team, the bike and I have enough potential to get a great result from these last two rounds, so we will go for it.”41 BRAD BINDER
“We got our third victory of the year in Australia, which is spectacular; the team did a great job. We come to Malaysia with the aim of repeating the feeling from Phillip Island, because the bike worked really well there; we played around a lot with the setup and found an incredible one for the race. In addition, the Sepang International Circuit has always been very good for me in past seasons, and last year I took a podium in Moto2. I hope to stay at the top and we will do our best to achieve that. I hope to finish off the season with two great results.”