After winning his first ever Moto3 race from the last spot on the grid, Binder hasn’t really stopped.
The day didn’t really start perfect for Binder, with a technical problem that the team couldn’t really spot, which meant that what he rode in the race was basically a brand new bike, but that didn’t really seem to matter at all. All through the race, right from the start, it was Binder, Fenati and Navarro who kept swapping spots, but it was Binder’s intelligence that mattered in the end.
Malaysian Pawi made great start, as did the pole sitter Antonelli, but both of them couldn’t really find the pace to stay at the front. Antonelli’s gamble with the softer option rear didn’t seem to work, which makes it 2/2 for him as far as bad luck goes.
But bad luck supreme it was for Adam Norrodin, who crashed out once again at the start due to contact with another rider. He just can’t seem to catch a break.
Bulega didn’t get a great start either, falling like a stone from 6th, ending up 10th by the end of lap 1, but crawled his way back up to claim 5th in the end.
The most beautiful moves in the race were definitely made by Fenati, who took a very different line into turn 3 and 4 to overtake at all, at one point moving from 3rd to 1st.
Aron Canet didn’t feel like a rookie at all, confidently overtaking his teammate and then Binder, and gesturing them to follow him, something that their crew chief didn’t seem to enjoy at all. As the race leaders settled down a bit and broke off from the second group with some 7 laps to go, Canet kept his cool and watched as the championship leaders fought amongst themselves. On the last corner in the last lap, he nearly took his teammate Navarro out, but the slight touch didn’t matter for either one of them.
Kornfeil was at one time in 3rd place, but then missed his braking marker in the slipstream of Binder and found himself back at 11th place.Brad Binder’s brother Darren binder crashed out, tried to remount, but had to retire because the handlebar was bent beyond use.
Navarro’s gamble with the soft option front didn’t seem to matter either, he felt it had its advantages and issues, but nothing that made a difference in the end.
The real fun began at the start of last lap, where Binder took Fenati at turn 11 and then rode one hell of a defensive lap. Fenati didn’t make a single mistake all the while he was up front, but when he made a tiny one by leaving the gate open a tiny bit, Binder didn’t need anything more.
After this win, Binder is leading the Moto3 championship with 102 pints, followed by Navarro at 78 and Fenati at 67.
Here are the final standings after the race:
- Binder
- Fenati
- Navarro
- Canet
- Bulegar
- Quartararo
- Migno
- Antonelli
- Kornfeil
- Locatelli