Joan Mir sprung a surprise in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, claiming his maiden pole position at the Red Bull Ring. The Spanish CEV graduate got the better of championship leader Brad Binder to grab pole, becoming the seventh different rider to top a qualifying session in ten races this season.
Binder held provisional pole after the initial runs with a 1:36.485 but the South African unwittingly assisted Mir in bettering his benchmark time with ten minutes remaining. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider set a personal best himself but with the Leopard rider locked into his slipstream, Brad was knocked off the top of the leaderboard almost immediately.
Moments after clocking what ultimately proved to be the pole time, Mir suffered a minor spill at turn four after outbraking himself while running with Binder and a second error at turn six saw him explore the Spielberg escape roads. Despite the messy end to the session though, Mir had done enough for a breakthrough pole position.
After being blocked by Albert Arenas on his final lap, Binder had to settle for second while Enea Bastianini missed out on a hat-trick of pole positions, qualifying third overall. Aron Canet was another rookie to shine in fourth ahead of Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia while two more rookies make up row three, Nicolo Bulega and Fabio Di Giannantonio lining up either side of Philipp Oettl in seventh and ninth respectively.
Romano Fenati qualified a disappointing eleventh but his weekend disintegrated when Sky VR46 later announced that “following repeated behaviour not in line with the disciplinary rules of a team”, he was being suspended and withdrawn from the race entirely.
Moto3 NeroGiardini Motorrad Grand Prix von Osterreich (Qualifying Result)
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