Having been the man to beat throughout Friday at the new Red Bull Ring, South African Brad Binder continued his domination of the Moto3™ field on Saturday morning as the skies dawned sunnier and the temperature began to rise, topping the session from Leopard Racing pair Joan Mir and Fabio Quartararo. With track limits the name of the game as some lap times continued to be deleted as riders ran slightly wide, on Saturday Binder was able to get down into the 1 minute 36 bracket with no issues – having had some of his fastest efforts deleted during FP1 and FP2.
Mir, a rookie in 2016, put in an impressive early lap to lead the session before Binder took back the top spot, as his Leopard Racing teammate Fabio Quartararo continued his run back in the frontrunning group. Dutch rookie Bo Bendsneyder on the second Red Bull KTM Ajo was fourth fastest at the flag as the former Red Bull Rookie continues to show flashes of good pace, ahead Argentine rider Gabriel Rodrigo (RBA Racing Team).
It was a difficult session for Brad Binder’s title rivals, as Jorge Navarro (Estrella Galicia 0,0) ended the session in P15 and Romano Fenati (Sky Racing Team VR46) in P19 – with the Italian failing to improve his Friday time.
Moto3™ qualifying gets underway later in the day as the grid prepare to fight for the first pole position at the Red Bull Ring since for nearly two decades.