Brad Binder showed the class of a champion once again to claim victory in an Australian Grand Prix punctuated by a succession of multiple rider pile-ups. The South African eased to a comfortable win ahead of Andrea Locatelli but a four-rider accident which brought out the red flag midway through overshadowed proceedings.
The first incident came at the second corner with five riders tangling at the Southern Loop including GP winners Khairul Idham Pawi and Joan Mir, as well as Aron Canet. Front-row qualifier Nicolo Bulega crashed out himself moments later and to complete a disastrous sequence of laps for the rookies, Fabio Di Giannantonio was wiped out at MG by the aggressive Gabriel Rodrigo.
The same tight hairpin would also see the incident which halted the Grand Prix when John McPhee losing the front end of his Peugeot coming over Lukey Heights. Andrea Migno and Enea Bastianini were powerless to avoid the Scotsman while Jorge Navarro was also held up by the mayhem, clattering into the unfortunate Bastianini. Race direction were left with no option but to stop the race and once all riders were found to be conscious, attention turned to an upcoming ten lap sprint to the finish.
The second part of the race proved to be a procession for Binder with most of his regular rivals eliminated in part one and the world champion cruised to victory ahead of Locatelli who gave Leopard some cheer after Fabio Quartararo was relegated to the back of the grid for an illegal ECU setting in qualifying, a penalty that applied to both parts of the race.
Despite crashing twice in part one, Aron Canet was rewarded for keeping his Honda running as he snatched the last podium spot in part two, edging out Darryn Binder, younger brother of Brad. Livio Loi was fifth ahead of Jorge Martin while Spanish rookie Marcos Ramirez finished a superb seventh on the second Platinum Bay Real Estate Mahindra.
Hiroki Ono claimed eighth spot ahead of Jules Danilo while Bo Bendsneyder rounded out the top ten, just 0.764s off the rostrum.
Moto3 Michelin Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix (Race Result)
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