Red Bull KTM Ajo rider places just 0.037s off victory to get his fourth podium of the season. Brad Binder takes fifth and Karel Hanika twenty-first.

hospital Moto3 race, San Marino MotoGP 2015″ width=”300″ height=”207″ /> Oliveira, Moto3 race, San Marino MotoGP 2015

The Moto3 race at Misano provided a battle for victory right until the last lap, and Miguel Oliveira and Brad Binder had a leading role in the group of five riders fighting for the rostrum. The Portuguese Red Bull KTM Ajo rider led much of the race and finally crossed the finish line second, 0.037s behind the winner, whilst Binder was fifth and only 6 tenths off the victory. Karel Hanika, who had experienced difficulties during the weekend, finished twenty-first.

Starting from the first two rows of the grid, Binder and Oliveira slotted into the front group of the race. A few laps later a group of seven riders broke free from the rest of the field, and each played their cards to achieve a good result at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Binder took the lead on the opening laps, and from Lap 8 it was Oliveira who headed the pack.

With the group reduced to five riders, the Portuguese started the last lap in front, but was overtaken on the slipstream by Enea Bastianini and finally crossed the finish line just 0.037s behind the Italian. Binder, without the same feeling that he had yesterday, finished fifth and was less than a second off victory. He missed out on the podium by less than 3 tenths.

Karel Hanika, who started from the eighth row, kept a steady pace throughout the race that allowed him to move up the field to seventeenth. Unfortunately, an incident with another rider on the final laps made him lose several positions and he took the chequered flag twenty-first.

After this result and with five races remaining, Miguel Oliveira is fourth in the overall standings with 139 points. In seventh place is Brad Binder -110 points- and Karel Hanika -33 points- is seventeenth. The next race takes place in two weeks’ time at MotorLand Aragon -from September 25-27th.

Race – Results
1. Enea Bastianini (Honda) 39:43.673
2. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +0.037
3. Niccolo Antonelli (Honda) +0.345
4. Romano Fenati (KTM) +0.584
5. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +0.637
21. Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +29.251

Moto3 World Championship Standing 2015
1. Danny Kent (Honda) 234 points
2. Enea Bastianini (Honda) 179 points
3. Romano Fenati (KTM) 139 points
4. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 134 points
5. Niccolo Antonelli (Honda) 126 points
7. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 110 points
17. Karel Hanika (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 33 points

Miguel Oliveira,
“It was a pretty good race. I had a good pace and I was able to lead for many laps, although this is mentally tiring when you are trying not to make any mistakes. I think this year the level is quite high in the class and we saw a good race. We set good times and despite the fact that some of our rivals are very young, they did not make mistakes. On the last lap, Enea Bastianini was able to overtake me thanks to the slipstream; I congratulate him because he had a good race. He had not managed the slipstream on previous laps, so I did not expect it, but I have to be happy with second position because it has been a long time off the podium for me. For the end of the season I hope to do this more often and I hope to get some more victories.”

Brad Binder,
“Today was not a very good day. This morning in the warmup I did not have the same feeling with the bike as I did yesterday and in the race it was very difficult to try to fight in the leading group. I lost time at various points on the track and it was a shame not to have achieved a better result, because after our practice performances and the hard work of the team, I think today I had the pace to win the race. I did everything possible to keep up with the rest of the group. The positive is that we worked hard throughout the weekend, we finally got fifth place, and finished once again very close to the podium.”

Karel Hanika,
“After this Grand Prix, for us the main thing now is to find the ideal setup for the bike, because all weekend we had the same problem. We did not improve from the first practice session to the race, but of course we will give our all to find a solution. If we do that, then I’m sure that we can be up with the frontrunners more often.

All race I was overtaking riders, but I couldn’t brake well. I was running wide, and the others passed me back. Perhaps we could have finished in 17th, but I was hit on the last lap. Anyway, it does not change things that much because we were not going to score points.”

Aki Ajo,
“The first thing we have to do today is to thank KTM for the improvements in the chassis and swingarm. The feeling throughout the weekend has been very positive for both the riders and team. We are grateful for their efforts and we will work hard with the confidence that we have a good package for the forthcoming races. Today we finished very close to victory, so it was a positive weekend.”