Leopard Racing’s Joan Mir bagged his debut Moto3 pole postion in today’s qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring, denying series leader Brad Binder by a tenth of a second as the South African climbed out of the gravel trap to take second place.

Mir has looked on much-improved form throughout the weekend at the Red Bull Ring. Despite two run offs in the session, the Spaniard’s fastest effort was enough to hold off the previously unstoppable Binder and set himself up for a good race result on Sunday.

Binder has been the man to beat in Spielberg so far, consistently the first man to break into the next bracket on the timing screens since track action got underway in FP1. The South African currently leads the standings in Moto3™ by a stunning 47 points, and seems to go into the race on Sunday as the favourite despite narrowly missing out on pole position.

Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing Moto3) completes the front row with the Italian starting to show more flashes of his 2015 form and get back into the top echelons of Moto3, ready to try and challenge for the victory on Sunday.

Big movement at the end of the session came from Aron Canet (Estrella Galicia 0,0), who moved himself up into an impressive fourth, ahead of Fabio Quartararo (Leopard Racing) – who continues to show a return to form. Nico Bulega (Sky Racing Team VR46) completes the second row in sixth as the new venue levels the playing field for many of the rookies in the class.

Key championship contender Jorge Navarro (Estrella Galicia 0,0) is the closest man to Binder in the points standings ahead and the Spaniard had a more difficult session to qualify in P16. Similarly, Sky Racing Team VR46 rider Romano Fenati – currently third in the title – was only able to get himself into 11th and the two men will be hoping to move up in the race.

Scotland’s John McPhee is struggling for speed in the first two sectors and could only manage 29th on the grid.

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