Brad Binder has taken pole for tomorrow’s Moto3 race at the Misano MotoGP after setting a new qualifying lap record in the San Marino sunshine, but revealed it could’ve been even faster had he not got stuck in traffic.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider saved his best until last as he banged in a 1’42.398 in the dying seconds of qualifying, with a lap which almost looked in jeopardy as he encountered traffic coming into the left corner.

Rookie Nicolo Bulega had held the top spot for much of the second part of the session after setting a 1’42.631 but it was all set to change as the pack came out en masse for the final five minutes.

Initially it seemed the SKY Racing Team VR46 rider may just hold onto the spot as the flag fell and everyone appeared to be too busy tripping each other up on the track to post anything which could threaten Bulega’s time.

But Binder had something left in the tank and was on a flyer of a lap as the flag fell, slicing through slowing bikes to take pole.

“I had almost the perfect last lap but as I went into the last corner someone had their hand up in the middle of the track, I had two riders next to each other and I didn’t know where to go so I had to just sit up, break and roll across the line,” he said.“I’m a little bit disappointed because it would’ve been a 41 but I’m pleased I have ended up with pole.”

Gresini Racing’s Enea Bastianini, who topped the timesheets on Friday, was unable to match the South African’s pace and had to settle for second, 0.156s adrift of Binder, while Bulega managed to hold onto third to grab his third front row of the season.

Jakub Kornfeil (Drive M7 SIC Racing Team) heads the second row after a very late lap, while Jorge Navarro (Estrella Galicia 0,0) managed to hold onto fifth despite crashing out at Turn Four as he pushed for a fast lap with just over a minute left, and will line up alongside team-mate Aron Canet who starts from sixth.

The third row will be made up of Philipp Oettl (Shedl GP Racing KTM), Hiroki Ono (Honda Team Asia) and Juanfran Guevara (RBM Racing Team) in seventh, eighth and ninth places respectively with Fabio Di Giannantonio rounding out the top 10.

Both Lorenzo Dalla Porta (SKY Racing Team VR46) and Jorge Martin (Gaviota Mahindra) were foiled in their attempts to move into the top ten after separate crashes in the final two minutes.

Scotland’s John McPhee continued to struggle, and was only able to end the session in a lowly 29th.