It was Joan Mir that won a nail-biting Moto3 race in Austria with Brad Binder in second, extending his championship lead. Jorge Navarro, second in the standings, crashed out from the race.
At the start, it was the front row that started best. Mir, Binder and Enea Bastianini all pulling away from the rest of the field on Lap 1. It was Aaron Canet who was in 4th position and held up the rest of the pack. After Canet had dropped right down the field, Fabio Quartararo and Phillip Oettl were able to catch the front three. As the battle at the front got more crowded, others were able to catch.
With 17 laps to go however, Binder, Quartararo, Bastianini, Mir and Oettl were able to pull away from the rest of the chasing pack again. Binder was able to gain the lead with Oettl behind and pull away slightly, leading a good number of laps consecutively. Unfortunately for Binder he would lose the lead with 6 laps to go and in an attempt to regain it, run wide at Turn 3, dropping to 5th.
After a tough start, Jorge Navarro had managed to fight his way up to 6th position. He looked on to only lose a few points to Binder before disaster struck and he fell at Turn 2. This leaves his championship chances looking very slim.
Back at the front and Binder was starting to fight back. Going into the final lap the front five were still side by side and Binder managed to gain the lead at Turn 2. Bastianini drew alongside him down the back straight and in Binder’s attempt to defend from Bastianini he pushed Enea and himself wide. This allowed Mir and Quartararo to take P1 & P2 for Leopard briefly but both Binder and Bastianini managed to repass Quartararo. Oettl was just behind in 5th with Jorge Martin at the front of the second pack taking an impressive 6th as top Mahindra.
Mir, however, was able to hold on and take his first career victory (and also first podium) from his first pole position. Not a bad weekend, for the Spanish Rookie. Brad Binder will also be very happy with his weekend’s work as he now leads Navarro in the standings by 67 points. Who would bet against him now?
