Darryn Binder Pulls A Blinder To Claim AragonGP Pole Position

PETRONAS Sprinta Racing’s Darryn Binder proved to be the one to beat in today’s Qualifying for the Gran Premio de Aragon, taking his first pole position since the QatarGP, while Syarifuddin Azman [Damok] will start his debut Moto3 race from 21st.

A strong start to the day for Binder saw him head to the top of the times early on in FP3, and stay there throughout the first half of the session. Setting the third fastest time – 1min 58.152secs – on his final lap, he secured his place in Q2. The South African continued this form in Qualifying, immediately taking his place at the top of the times with a 1min 57.724secs lap. Darryn’s lap proved to be impossible to beat and he claimed his second pole position of the year.

Damok had a steady start to FP3, as he continued to adapt to his Moto3 machinery, but it didn’t take him long to start improving his lap time. The Malaysian ended the session 25th, 26th overall, with a 2min 0.111secs lap. Damok started Q1 strongly; setting a 1min 59.725secs lap that placed him third momentarily, before holding fifth for most of the session. Ultimately Damok was unable to improve upon this, ending Q1 seventh and securing 21st place on the grid for his debut Moto3 race.

Darryn Binder

‘I’m really happy with today. I ended yesterday in a good place and I felt confident coming into qualifying. I brought my long pants with me today because I thought that I could put it on pole, so I wanted to make sure I looked smart in the press conference! I’m super happy with how everything worked out and I want to say a huge thanks to the team for putting a perfect bike together for me. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow’s race. I’m feeling confident and I think we can have a strong race. I was on the podium with second here last year, so I’m hoping I can go one better tomorrow.’

Syarifuddin Azman

I am so happy with Practice and Qualifying today because I was able to improve my lap time from yesterday. Tomorrow should be even better and I have a good starting position, to be able to follow the big group in the race. This is my target, to be able to stay with the lead pack and follow the fastest riders. We will see tomorrow what happens, but I think I have the potential to be in this group and I will give my best in the race.