Le Mans Moto3: Binder outduels Fenati to extend championship lead

The South African first took the lead on the opening lap, stealing it from pole-sitter Niccolo Antonelli.

However, Binder then fell behind Fenati, who passed both him and Antonelli with a single move at the Dunlop chicane.

While Antonelli soon dropped outside the top five, Binder and Fenati traded positions on several occasions in the first half of the race.

And it was Fenati out front when Aron Canet, the first of the two Estrella Galicia 0,0 riders able to keep up with the leading duo, stole second from Binder.

The rookie could only hold on to second for a lap before dropping back to fourth with teammate Jorge Navarro then also passing Binder.

However, the South African was back in second for the final four laps and managed to overtake Fenati on the penultimate lap to cross the line first.

Fenati had to settle for second just ahead of Navarro and Canet, the latter nearly crashing into his teammate at the final turn.

Nicolo Bulega, who bogged down at the start, led another quarter of riders to recover in fifth, followed by Fabio Quartararo, Andrea Migno and Antonelli.

Jakub Kornfeil had to settle for ninth after running wide from fifth, as Andrea Locatelli completed the top 10.

Race results

Pos.	Rider	Bike	Time
1	Brad Binder	KTM RC 250 GP	41:31.041
2	Romano Fenati	KTM RC 250 GP	+0.099
3	Jorge Navarro	Honda NSF250RW	+0.387
4	Aron Canet	Honda NSF250RW	+1.354
5	Nicolo Bulega	KTM RC 250 GP	+7.147
6	Fabio Quartararo	KTM RC 250 GP	+7.616
7	Andrea Migno	KTM RC 250 GP	+8.016
8	Niccolo Antonelli	Honda NSF250RW	+8.457
9	Jakub Kornfeil	Honda NSF250RW	+9.850
10	Andrea Locatelli	KTM RC 250 GP	+9.926
11	Livio Loi	Honda NSF250RW	+12.293
12	Francesco Bagnaia	Mahindra MGP30	+13.738
13	Juan Francisco Guevara	KTM RC 250 GP	+13.511
14	Khairul Idham Pawi	Honda NSF250RW	+13.907
15	Tatsuki Suzuki	Mahindra MGP30	+14.382
16	Bo Bendsneyder	KTM RC 250 GP	+20.915
17	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Honda NSF250RW	+21.229
18	Jorge Martin	Mahindra MGP30	+24.091
19	Alexis Masbou	Peugeot MGP30	+38.782
20	John McPhee	Peugeot MGP30	+38.852
21	Maria Herrera	KTM RC 250 GP	+38.986
22	Stefano Valtulini	Mahindra MGP30	+54.550
23	Fabio Spiranelli	Mahindra MGP30	+1:03.526
24	Lorenzo Petrarca	Mahindra MGP30	+1:03.593
25	Joan Mir	KTM RC 250 GP	+1:05.491
R	Gabriel Rodrigo	KTM RC 250 GP
R	Enzo Boulom	KTM RC 250 GP
R	Hiroki Ono	Honda NSF250RW
R	Darryn Binder	Mahindra MGP30
R	Philipp Oettl	KTM RC 250 GP
R	Jules Danilo	Honda NSF250RW
R	Karel Hanika	Mahindra MGP30
R	Adam Norrodin	Honda NSF250RW