Leopard Racing Joan Mir started the Moto3 race from pole, and then went on to win a five-way battle for the victory, and the rookie crossed the finishing line to take his maiden win in the class at the Red Bull Ring.
Mir had strong competition in the way of Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder, who snatched second place from Gresini Racing’s Enea Bastianini, with Leopard Racing’s Fabio Quartararo and Philipp Oettl rounding up the top five. Binder does now extend his lead in the overall standings and has a 67 point advantage over Jorge Navarro, who crashed out of the race at Remus whilst in seventh.
At first it was Binder who was the rider who bagged the hole-shot from Bastianini and pole-setter debutant, Mir. But soon the pole man fought back and after one lap found his way back at the front.
Then Quartararo decided to join the party and soared into the top four, but then Bastianini went wide and slipped back down to fifth. Frenchman Quartararo did hit back on the opening corner, going into Castrol Edge on Binder, and soon made a move that stuck three corners later with fifteen laps to go out on the Austrian track. But a rotation later Binder went back into the lead, after getting inside the slipstream of the Leopard Racing machine on the straight.
But from out of no where Oettl pushed his way past Bastianini, Quartararo and Mir to go up to second. Meanwhile the duelling Leopold bikes of Mir and Quartararo touched at Rindt and lost some time on the front pack of Binder, Oettl and Bastianini. With nine laps to go championship leader, Binder did pull away from Quartararo and Oettl to try and get some clear track to challenge for the win. But once again Quartararo hit back and gained some extra pace to make a move on Binder at Castrol Edge.
But at Remus the KTM rider got back in the P1 position once again, but it was still a five-way fight for the victory, and at some points in the race they were five abreast on track. With the Moto3 bikes being so close together Mir took the lead from his team-mate, and Binder with five laps remaining, but the battling five-some were not giving up and it went down to the wire on the final lap. Martin, Bendsneyder, Giannantonio, Bulega and Loi completed the top ten, with Maria Herrera and Hiroki Ono the last of the points finishers.
Scotland’s finest John McPhee ended the Moto3 race in 24th. It was not the best race for Navarro, who lies second in the standings, but crashed while in seventh at Remus. There was no Sky Racing Romano Fenati on the grid as he has been suspended by his team for this round due to disciplinary issues.
Click here for results