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Valencia Moto3: Binder comes back from 22nd to win finale

Brad Binder capped off his title-winning Moto3 campaign with victory in the season finale at Valencia, recovering from 22nd place to pip Joan Mir to the finish line by 0.056s.

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Ajo, KTM

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Ajo, KTM

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

The South African rider effectively started from pole after the quickest man in qualifying, Aron Canet, was pulled off the dummy grid after stalling his bike.

But Binder plummeted down the order on the second lap with an off at Turn 6, dropping from the leading group down to 22nd before steadily clawing his way back through the order.

The race was led at that stage by Mir, although the Spaniard was later forced to drop a place, behind the Sky VR46 bike of Andrea Migno, for having taken the lead under yellow flags after a crash involving Gabriel Rodrigo and Francesco Bagnaia.

With 10 laps to go, Binder had made his way up to fifth place behind the leading quartet of Migno, Mir and the Gresini pair of Fabio di Giannantonio and Enea Bastianini.

From there, the champion began to pick his way though his rivals, taking the lead from Mir with four laps to go - only to then drop back again with a small mistake at Turn 2 that dropped him to fourth.

That forced Binder to repeat his moves, with the decisive one coming at the first corner on the final lap. Mir came close to sliding up the inside at the last corner, but Binder held on to take his seventh win of the year by just 0.056s.

"I'm not too sure what happened, I opened the gas twice, the engine cut-out and I high-sided. It did it twice in two corners, so I thought something was wrong," said Binder of his early problem.

"But the bike was alright, carried on going and never had another problem. I never had another problem, and I pushed so hard, and to finish my Moto3 career like this is awesome."

Despite missing out on a second victory, Mir's second place allowed him to seal Rookie of the Year honours, 10 points clear of di Giannantonio - who was fifth behind Migno and Bastianini.

Juanfran Guevara was sixth, followed by Jakub Kornfeil, Philipp Oettl, Jorge Navarro (who took third in the standings thanks to Bagnaia's crash) and the surviving Aspar Mahindra of Jorge Martin.

Still suffering from injuries sustained in Malaysia, the third contender for rookie honours, Nicolo Bulega could do no better than 17th place - two ahead of recovering poleman Canet after his start-line drama.

Race results:

Cla#RiderBikeTime/Gap
1 41  Brad Binder  KTM 40'13.777
2 36  Joan Mir  KTM 0.056
3 16  Andrea Migno  KTM 0.081
4 33  Enea Bastianini  Honda 0.147
5 4  Fabio Di Giannantonio  Honda 0.713
6 58  Juan Francisco Guevara  KTM 0.899
7 84  Jakub Kornfeil  Honda 2.683
8 65  Philipp Ottl  KTM 3.145
9 9  Jorge Navarro  Honda 5.263
10 88  Jorge Martin  Mahindra 7.921
11 31   Raul Fernandez  KTM 8.081
12 40  Darryn Binder  Mahindra 8.250
13 64  Bo Bendsneyder  KTM 8.603
14 20  Fabio Quartararo  KTM 9.283
15 11  Livio Loi  Honda 9.358
16 23  Niccolo Antonelli  Honda 9.527
17 8  Nicolo Bulega  KTM 9.652
18 24  Tatsuki Suzuki  Mahindra 9.950
19 44  Aron Canet  Honda 16.838
20 55  Andrea Locatelli  KTM 18.712
21 76  Hiroki Ono  Honda 18.737
22 98  Karel Hanika  KTM 18.976
23 63   Vicente Perez  Peugeot 19.039
24 12  Albert Arenas  Peugeot 24.297
25 89  Khairul Idham Pawi  Honda 24.526
26 95  Jules Danilo  Honda 25.331
27 7  Adam Norrodin  Honda 25.370
28 77   Lorenzo Petrarca  Mahindra 48.829
29 26   Daniel Saez  KTM 48.861
30 99  Enzo Boulom  Mahindra 49.282
31 43  Stefano Valtulini  Mahindra 1'12.409
Ret 42   Marcos Ramirez  Mahindra 17 laps
Ret  48   Lorenzo dalla Porta  KTM 21 laps
Ret  19  Gabriel Rodrigo  KTM  
Ret  21  Francesco Bagnaia  Mahindra  

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