Brad Binder claimed his fourth pole position of 2016 at Misano despite a climax to qualifying that was dominated by traffic. The South African picked his way through the mayhem to break the qualifying record, ensuring he outpaced Italian duo Enea Bastianini and Nicolo Bulega.
Austrian GP winner Joan Mir had finished free practice as the fastest rider but qualifying got off to a tricky start for the Spaniard, his Leopard KTM sidelined for a long spell with apparent mechanical problems. While the rookie watched on, Binder got straight down to business with a 1:42.699 handing him provisional pole at the halfway stage.
The championship leader appeared to be running an alternative strategy to the rest of the field, waiting for the traffic to clear before venturing out alone, but Binder was forced to watch on as Bulega replaced him at the top of the leaderboard, the Sky VR46 rider clocking a 1:42.631.
As the traffic intensified in the dying seconds, Bulega’s time looked set to remain unbeaten but Binder found enough clear track to set a blistering first three sectors. With the finish line in sight, the Ajo rider caught Maria Herrera and lost valuable time but fortunately for him, he already had enough in hand to maintain pole position pace, pipping Bulega by a quarter of a second.
Bastianini shadowed Binder on the final lap and was rewarded with second while Bulega held onto a front row spot despite a late improvement by Jakub Kornfeil. The Czech rider lines up fourth with Estrella Galicia pair Jorge Navarro and Aron Canet alongside while Philipp Oettl heads row three, joined by Hiroki Ono and Juanfran Guevara.
Moto3 GP TIM Di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini (Qualifying Result)
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