South African Brad Binder celebrated his 24th birthday in style on Sunday with success in the Austrian Moto2 Grand Prix.

The KTM rider was all smiles after ending a winless spell stretching back to Australia in October last year.

"I can't imagine a better day than winning on my birthday at KTM's home track," the 2016 Moto3 champion beamed.

Binder crossed the line with a 0.330sec advantage over Alex Marquez, who moved on to 181 points at the top of the Moto2 championships standings, a lead of 43 points over Thomas Luthi.

Binder's success came just after Austrian manufacturer KTM had announced they were withdrawing from the Moto2 championship at the end of this season to plough all their resources into MotoGP in an initial five-year deal.

That will suit Binder, who is graduating to the premier category in 2020.

Marquez' second place on the podium was hard-earned.

The brother of MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez had started from 11th on the grid but managed to avoid a series of crashes that eliminated Japan's pole-sitter Tetsuta Nagashima, Spain's Xavi Vierge, Australian Remy Gardner and Italian duo Enea Bastianini and Luca Marini.

"The conditions were very difficult and treacherous with a very slippery circuit," he said.

The Moto3 race was won by Italian Romano Fenati for Honda.