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Race report
Moto3 Barcelona

Barcelona Moto3: Binder wins as title rivals clash

Darryn Binder grabbed his maiden Moto3 win in a dramatic Catalan Grand Prix in which championship rivals John McPhee and Albert Arenas collided.

Darryn Binder, CIP Green Power

Crashing out of victory contention in the Misano double-header, CIP’s Binder made a last-lap pass for the lead on Leopard’s Dennis Foggia to grab the first win of his grand prix career.

Poleman Tony Arbolino – who will step up to Moto2 in 2021 with Intact GP – grabbed the holeshot off the line on his Snipers Honda and held the spot for the first two laps.

Arbolino was slipstreamed by Arenas and Binder on the run into Turn 1 on the third tour, before Gabriel Rodrigo on the Gresini Honda took the lead on lap four.

Petronas Sprinta’s McPhee had worked his way up from 12th on the grid to third and was trailing Arenas on lap six when he lost the front of his Honda trying to go up the inside at Turn 4, wiping out the championship leader.

The lead, as usual in Moto3, changed hands a number of times over the next 10 laps, with Binder, Arbolino, Leopard’s Jaume Masia, teammate Foggia and Rodrigo all taking turns at heading the pack.

Foggia retaliated on Binder on lap 15 at Turn 10 having lost the lead at Turn 1 the lap before to the CIP rider.

San Marino winner Foggia proved difficult to overtake and led onto the 21st and final lap ahead of Binder, Arbolino, Max Racing’s Alonso Lopez and the EG 0,0 Honda of Sergio Garcia in the breakaway lead group.

Binder nailed his run through the first four corners and muscled his way up the inside of Foggia into the Turn 5 left-hander, forcing the Leopard rider wide and allowing Arbolino to come through into second.

Arbolino was unable to find a way through on Binder on the run to the end of the lap, with the CIP rider getting to the chequered flag 0.103 seconds clear. 

Binder joins his KTM MotoGP-mounted brother and 2016 Moto3 champion Brad as the only South African to have won in the lightweight class since its switch to the Moto3 formula in 2012. 

Foggia held onto third to complete the podium ahead of Garcia and Lopez, while Masia and VR46’s Celestino Vietti took the chequered flag in sixth and seventh.

However, both were docked one place for exceeding track limits on the final lap, promoting Max Racing’s Romano Fenati to sixth. SIC58’s Niccolo Antonelli and Rodrigo completed the top 10. 

Ai Ogura crossed the line 11th on his Team Asia Honda and moves into the championship lead, though only by three points over Arenas. 

McPhee remains third and 24 points adrift of Ogura, while Arbolino’s podium lifts him into contention in a joint fourth in the standings with Vietti – the pair just 27 points down.

Race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time
1 40 South Africa Darryn Binder KTM  
2 14 Italy Tony Arbolino Honda 0.103
3 7 Italy Dennis Foggia Honda 0.157
4 11 Spain Sergio García Honda 0.232
5 21 Spain Alonso López Husqvarna 0.386
6 55 Italy Romano Fenati Husqvarna 1.436
7 5 Spain Jaume Masia Honda 1.218
8 13 Italy Celestino Vietti Ramus KTM 1.293
9 23 Italy Niccolo Antonelli Honda 1.928
10 2 Argentina Gabriel Rodrigo Honda 1.932
11 79 Japan Ai Ogura Honda 2.012
12 12 Czech Republic Filip Salač Honda 2.536
13 25 Spain Raúl Fernández KTM 3.572
14 82 Italy Stefano Nepa KTM 4.800
15 6 Japan Ryusei Yamanaka Honda 5.042
16 70 Belgium Barry Baltus KTM 5.656
17 71 Japan Ayumu Sasaki KTM 6.729
18 27 Japan Kaito Toba KTM 13.556
19 52 Spain Jeremy Alcoba Honda 14.205
20 54 Italy Riccardo Rossi KTM 14.437
21 92 Japan Yuki Kunii Honda 23.202
22 50 Switzerland Jason Dupasquier KTM 25.032
23 73 Austria Maximilian Kofler KTM 35.469
24 89 Malaysia Khairul Idham Pawi Honda 35.496
  16 Italy Andrea Migno KTM  
  99 Spain Carlos Tatay KTM  
  9 Italy Davide Pizzoli KTM  
  53 Turkey Deniz Öncü KTM  
  20 Spain Jose Garcia Honda  
  17 United Kingdom John McPhee Honda  
  75 Spain Albert Arenas KTM  

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