Le Mans Moto3: Antonelli beats Binder in crash-strewn qualifying

Jakub Kornfeil, overall quickest after FP3, was the early leader but was narrowly pipped by Romano Fenati before the first of two pitstop breaks.

Binder quickly took the lead once back out and, despite him being temporarily demoted by Nicolo Bulega, another improvement saw the championship leader in first place heading into the closing minutes.

Although the South African failed to improve the during the dying stages, he remained the leader until the chequered flag, only to be pipped by Antonelli with a last-second effort.

Rookie Aron Canet took third, just two thousandths off Binder's pace, to secure his first Moto3 front row start, just ahead of Estrella Galicia 0,0 teammate Jorge Navarro.

Sky Racing Team duo  Fenati and Nicolo Bulega completed the top six, which was separated by 0.132s. The latter also suffered a highside crash, from which he walked away, seemingly suffering from pain in his left wrist.

Juanfran Guevara was seventh, just beating Fabio Quartararo, who also fell after running wide into the gravel.

The top 10 was made up by Khairul Idham Pawi and Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Alongside Bulega and Quartararo, a number of rider crashed out, among them Kornfeil, Gabriel Rodrigo, Joan Mir, Adam Norrodin and Fabio Spiranelli.

Full results

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time
1	Niccolo Antonelli	Ongetta-Rivacold	Honda NSF250RW	1:42.756
2	Brad Binder	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM RC 250 GP	1:42.823
3	Aron Canet	Estrella Galicia 0,0	Honda NSF250RW	1:42.825
4	Jorge Navarro	Estrella Galicia 0,0	Honda NSF250RW	1:42.842
5	Romano Fenati	SKY Racing Team VR46	KTM RC 250 GP	1:42.865
6	Nicolo Bulega	SKY Racing Team VR46	KTM RC 250 GP	1:42.888
7	Juan Francisco Guevara	RBA Racing Team	KTM RC 250 GP	1:43.084
8	Fabio Quartararo	Leopard Racing	KTM RC 250 GP	1:43.092
9	Khairul Idham Pawi	Honda Team Asia	Honda NSF250RW	1:43.106
10	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Gresini Racing Moto3	Honda NSF250RW	1:43.198
11	Jakub Kornfeil	Drive M7 SIC Racing Team	Honda NSF250RW	1:43.214
12	Livio Loi	RW Racing GP BV	Honda NSF250RW	1:43.224
13	Tatsuki Suzuki	CIP-Unicom Starker	Mahindra MGP30	1:43.275
14	Andrea Locatelli	Leopard Racing	KTM RC 250 GP	1:43.330
15	Alexis Masbou	Peugeot MC Saxoprint	Peugeot MGP30	1:43.353
16	Hiroki Ono	Honda Team Asia	Honda NSF250RW	1:43.376
17	Andrea Migno	SKY Racing Team VR46	KTM RC 250 GP	1:43.448
18	Philipp Ottl	Schedl GP Racing	KTM RC 250 GP	1:43.458
19	Francesco Bagnaia	ASPAR Mahindra Team Moto3	Mahindra MGP30	1:43.496
20	Gabriel Rodrigo	RBA Racing Team	KTM RC 250 GP	1:43.643
21	Bo Bendsneyder	Red Bull KTM Ajo	KTM RC 250 GP	1:43.687
22	Darryn Binder	Platinum Bay Real Estate	Mahindra MGP30	1:43.725
23	Jorge Martin	ASPAR Mahindra Team Moto3	Mahindra MGP30	1:43.732
24	Joan Mir	Leopard Racing	KTM RC 250 GP	1:43.766
25	John McPhee	Peugeot MC Saxoprint	Peugeot MGP30	1:43.767
26	Karel Hanika	Platinum Bay Real Estate	Mahindra MGP30	1:43.807
27	Jules Danilo	Ongetta-Rivacold	Honda NSF250RW	1:44.056
28	Stefano Valtulini	3570 Team Italia	Mahindra MGP30	1:44.214
29	Enzo Boulom	Procercasa - 42 Motorsport	KTM RC 250 GP	1:44.314
30	Adam Norrodin	Drive M7 SIC Racing Team	Honda NSF250RW	1:45.207
31	Lorenzo Petrarca	3570 Team Italia	Mahindra MGP30	1:45.526
32	Fabio Spiranelli	CIP-Unicom Starker	Mahindra MGP30	1:45.603
33	Maria Herrera*	MH6 Team	KTM RC 250 GP	1:44.378

 

*Herrera received a grid penalty.