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Edition

Australia
Race report

Aragon Moto2: Binder fends off Navarro, Marquez extends lead

KTM rider Brad Binder withstood late pressure from Speed Up's Jorge Navarro to win the Moto2 race at Aragon.

Brad Binder, KTM Ajo

Brad Binder, KTM Ajo

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

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

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Edition

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