Australian Moto3: Binder wins crash-affected race at Phillip Island

Starting from pole, the South African kept his cool all through the red-flagged and then restarted race, keeping a good buffer out front ahead of his closest rival Andrea Locatelli.

Meanwhile, the battle for the final podium position heated up in the closing laps of the shortened 10-lap dash after the restart, with as many as 16 riders involved in the tussle in a usual Moto3-style race.

Not that it was any concern to Binder, as the 2016 champion took a dominant win over Locatelli with 5.937s separating the two over the finish line.

A fair way back, and after a number of changes, it came down to Aron Canet and the winner’s brother Darryn Binder on the final lap for third.

Despite the valiant effort from Darryn after his Lap 1 crash, the Platinum Bay rider lost out on the finish line with Canet slipstreaming past the South African – the two separated by mere 0.048s.

Behind the Top 4, Livio Loi finished fifth with Aspar Mahindra’s Jorge Martin sixth, the Spanish rider also making progress having after stalling on the restart.

Meanwhile, Marcos Ramirez made it a brilliant day for the Platinum Bay team, taking his first championship points in seventh, having run as high as third.

Hiroki Ono was eighth followed by Jules Danilo and  Bo Bendsneyder.

Red flag halts proceedings

The race was stopped after the first five laps, a manic start seeing 14 riders crashing out, including two major pile-ups.

The start saw Darryn Binder, Joan Mir and Khairul Idham Pawi colliding on Lap 1, with the latter two retiring, while Darryn managing to continue in the race.

The incident saw Pawi’s Honda destroyed and the Malaysian rider is believed to be a non-starter in next weekend’s Sepang race with the bike beyond repair.

Few laps on, Nicolo Bulega also crashed out from the lead group and the following lap saw Fabio di Giannantonio, Francesco Bagnaia retiring after the former got hit by Gabriel Rodrigo.

With di Giannantonio having nowhere to go, the Italian touched with fellow countryman Bagnaia, taking him out in the process.

The final clash, which brought out the red flag saw Peugeot’s John McPhee falling with Enea Bastianini and Andrea Migno also crashing, trying to avoid the Briton.

In what looked like an awful hit, Bastianini ran over McPhee – but fortunately all riders were later cleared as being conscious.

Medical checks continue for the Scottish rider, although early reports suggest that he is conscious and moving his legs and arms.

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time	Gap
1	Brad Binder	KTM	16'22.009
2	Andrea Locatelli	KTM	16'27.946	5.937
3	Aron Canet	Honda	16'31.603	9.594
4	Darryn Binder	Mahindra	16'31.651	9.642
5	Livio Loi	Honda	16'31.689	9.680
6	Jorge Martin	Mahindra	16'31.759	9.750
7	Marcos Ramirez	Mahindra	16'32.005	9.996
8	Hiroki Ono	Honda	16'32.124	10.115
9	Jules Danilo	Honda	16'32.151	10.142
10	Bo Bendsneyder	KTM	16'32.367	10.358
11	Adam Norrodin	Honda	16'32.456	10.447
12	Fabio Quartararo	KTM	16'32.578	10.569
13	Tatsuki Suzuki	Mahindra	16'32.691	10.682
14	Philipp Ottl	KTM	16'32.988	10.979
15	Maria Herrera	KTM	16'35.772	13.763
16	Albert Arenas	Peugeot	16'35.830	13.821
17	Lorenzo Petrarca	Mahindra	16'50.306	28.297
18	Fabio Spiranelli	Mahindra	17'04.045	42.036
19	Lorenzo dalla Porta	KTM	17'12.463	50.454
20	Matt Barton	FTR Honda	17'45.455	1'23.446
	Gabriel Rodrigo	KTM	14'53.651	1 Lap
	Jorge Navarro	Honda	14'54.470	1 Lap
	Stefano Valtulini	Mahindra	13'29.845	2 Laps
	Niccolo Antonelli	Honda