Tom Luthi has been declared unfit to race in the Moto2 Malaysian Grand Prix due to an ankle fracture, securing the 2017 world championship for Franco Morbidelli.
Swiss rider Luthi suffered a massive highside crash exiting Turn2 towards the end of qualifying at Sepang, and while escaping a concussion after a heavy hit to the tarmac, a fracture to his ankle forced him to withdraw from the event ahead of Sunday morning warm-up.
Twitter: This was the crash that ended @ThomasLUTHI’s 2017 #Moto2 title hopes
Get well soon Tom#MalaysianGP https://t.co/8xYU8bOgCG (@MotoGP)
Trailing Morbidelli by 29 points ahead of this race, missing the Sepang race hands the world championship to the Italian.
Morbidelli has been a fixture on the Moto2 grid permanently since 2014, and a switch to the championship-winning Marc VDS team last season turned him into a front-runner on the intermediate class.
The Valentino Rossi-backed Italian stormed to victory in the first three races of the season, and he brushed off a crash at Jerez with a fourth win of the year at France two weeks later.
He returned to the top step of the podium at Assen, and headed into the summer break in firm command of the standings after winning the German Grand Prix.
Another win and a third in Austria and Great Britain put an eighth in a wet Brno to the back of his mind.
A DNF at a wet Misano allowed Luthi to close to within nine points in the standings, but Morbidelli responded with victory at Aragon, and put one hand on the trophy last time out at Phillip Island with a third while Luthi struggled to 10th.
Morbidelli becomes the second world champion crowned in 2017 after Joan Mir wrapped up the Moto3 title in Australia, and is the Marc VDS squad’s second champion in Moto2 after Tito Rabat in 2014.
The Italian – who will step up to MotoGP next year with Marc VDS alongside title rival Luthi – will begin his first race as world champion later today from pole position.
