Aragon Moto2: Binder fends off Navarro, Marquez extends lead

Championship leader Alex Marquez followed the pair home in third place, significantly extending his points advantage courtesy of a crash for Augusto Fernandez.

Marquez had started from pole but was passed by Binder even before the first corner, with Luca Marini then swooping around the outside to take second.

Yet Marquez's title hopes received an immediate boost as Fernandez, running right behind him in fourth, hit the deck through the 'reverse corkscrew', rejoining the race in 31st and last.

Binder was as many as seven tenths clear after the opening lap, but was swiftly reeled back in by Marini and Marquez, the latter successfully launching it down the inside of the former at Turn 1 on the sixth lap.

As Marquez and Marini scrapped away for second, with Marini soon retaliating with a Turn 1 move of his own, Binder rebuilt his lead to over a second.

The South African continued to streak away over the next few laps, and eventually more than doubled his lead by the time Marquez re-passed Marini at Turn 5.

Having weathered the Marini duel, and with Navarro then swiftly overtaking the Italian, Marquez set off after Binder in the final laps but struggled to make much progress and was passed by Navarro at Turn 1 with three laps to go.

Navarro, however, could still put Binder under some pressure, closing to within half a second of the South African heading onto the final lap, before ultimately yielding to finish 0.787s behind.

Marquez completed the podium two seconds behind the winner, and will take a lead of 38 points over his new nearest rival Navarro into Thailand.

Marini held off Sam Lowes for fourth, while Tom Luthi made up the top six to preserve his championship chances.

Iker Lecuona was seventh ahead of Lorenzo Baldassarri, who had spent much of the race outside of the top 10 but surged to eighth late on.

Moto3 champion Jorge Martin posted his third top-10 finish of the campaign in ninth, while Marquez's Marc VDS teammate Xavi Vierge made up the top 10.

Fernandez recovered to 22nd at the flag, while Joe Roberts and Tetsuta Nagashima joined him in suffering crashes.

The Petronas Sprinta team did not participate in the race, after Adam Norrodin - standing in for the still-injured Khairul Idham Pawi - withdrew following a practice crash.

Race results

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time
1	41	Brad Binder	KTM	21	39'45.177
2	9	Jorge Navarro	Speed Up	21	39'45.964
3	73	Alex Marquez	Kalex	21	39'48.053
4	10	Luca Marini	Kalex	21	39'50.564
5	22	Sam Lowes	Kalex	21	39'50.778
6	12	Thomas Luthi	Kalex	21	39'54.872
7	27	Iker Lecuona	KTM	21	39'56.827
8	7	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Kalex	21	39'57.723
9	88	Jorge Martin	KTM	21	39'59.952
10	97	Xavi Vierge	Kalex	21	40'00.570
11	21	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Speed Up	21	40'00.672
12	11	Nicolo Bulega	Kalex	21	40'00.802
13	87	Remy Gardner	Kalex	21	40'01.036
14	62	Stefano Manzi	MV	21	40'07.015
15	72	Marco Bezzecchi	KTM	21	40'07.036
16	35	Somkiat Chantra	Kalex	21	40'07.836
17	5	Andrea Locatelli	Kalex	21	40'11.074
18	64	Bo Bendsneyder	NTS	21	40'13.786
19	77	Dominique Aegerter	MV	21	40'14.120
20	2	Jesko Raffin	Kalex	21	40'13.856
21	24	Simone Corsi	NTS	21	40'22.703
22	40	Augusto Fernandez	Kalex	21	40'26.227
23	96	Jake Dixon	KTM	21	40'27.821
24	33	Enea Bastianini	Kalex	21	40'31.119
25	3	Lukas Tulovic	KTM	21	40'35.857
26	65	Philipp Ottl	KTM	21	40'37.544
27	18	Xavi Cardelus	KTM	21	40'54.291
28	6	Gabriele Ruiu	Kalex	21	41'01.418
29	31	Gerry Salim	Kalex	21	41'01.558
30	16	Joe Roberts	KTM	21	41'03.997
	45	Tetsuta Nagashima	Kalex	6	11'28.807
View full results