South African Brad Binder won the Spanish Moto3 race in a storming ride that saw the Ajo Motorsport rider win from the back of the grid.
Binder, who qualified on the front row of the grid, was forced to start in last place after he was handed a penalty for having a non-homologated ECU on his KTM machine. The team did appeal, but it was thrown out by organisers Dorna.
This didn’t affect Binder, who forced his way through the pack to eventually win his first ever Moto3 race, being the first South African to win a race in over thirty five years.
Behind Binder, there was a proper battle between Nicolo Bulega, Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Navarro, who scrapped it out until the final lap, when Bulega just managed to get ahead and take second, with Bagnaia taking third on the unfancied Mahindra machine.
Behind that group, it was Jakub Kornfeil who took fifth ahead of Joan Mir, Romano Fenati, Enea Bastianini, Jules Danilo and Phillip Oettl, who completed the top ten.
There were a number of riders who fell during the race, including championship contender Nicolo Antonelli, who had to start from pit lane after troubles on the starting grid. Britain’s Scott McPhee’s terrible run of luck also continued, with the Scot falling at turn 2 on his Peugeot-Mahindra machine.
Binder’s win extends his lead at the top of the World Championship standings, with the South African now enjoying a fifteen point lead at the top of the standings over his closest rival Jorge Navarro. Fenati is in third place, with his teammate Bulega jumping up the standings to fourth place thanks to his second-placed finish this weekend.
The Moto3 riders will return in two weeks time for the French GP at the Le Mans Circuit.
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