The Termas Sprint victory seemed like a flash in the pan, yet Brad Binder reconfirmed himself in the short race at Jerez. The 12 laps on Saturday crowned the KTM rider, who confirmed his form in the short distance. The South African rules his teammate in the Sprint, while the reigning champion Pecco Bagnaia is on the podium with the KTM duo.
Binder is in his best moment, managing to be incisive both before the red flag and at the restart. Although the 12 laps of the race lead us to think that we are going full throttle, the South African played with strategy, then launching the attack at the decisive moment and going on to win the second sprint race out of four disputed.
“Today was really a fantastic day, I had a great start on the restart and managed to get ahead,” explains Binder, who explains how he reasoned about his race. “I didn’t feel great in the first two or three laps, then I managed to stay behind Jack and tried to be as clean as possible until the last two laps, where I told myself I could go for it. I gave everything until the end and the results came, so I have to thank KTM, the whole team and Dani for coming back and helping us so much. I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
The long race will be another story, however Binder feels he can be in the match on Sunday as well. The goal is to do the same again tomorrow, on the strength of a bike that can finally be truly competitive: “I’ve also felt good on other days in the past, but I’ve never arrived so far, so much so that I’m so far in front. I think I now have a good bike to do a good job, I think all these years of difficulty have helped me. The season is very long, we’ll try to win tomorrow’s race too and then we’ll see”.
Along with Pecco Bagnaia, Binder is the only one to have managed to get on the top step of the podium in the Sprint: “I think the Sprint Race is beautiful when you start from the front, when instead you have to try to overtake it’s not easy because there aren’t many turns. But it was beautiful and I’m really enjoying myself with these Sprints, even if I still prefer the long race. In any case, tomorrow there will be a battle from start to finish and I will try to bring home some points”.
The victory at Jerez also adds to the one obtained with a furious comeback in Argentina. However, Binder hopes he won’t have to spend the races recovering from the back-up positions, but to start more often from the front: “Sometimes there are conditions that play in your favour, I didn’t think I’d get such a good start, but the I’ve done and I hope I’m not always forced to do this hard work of comeback every weekend”.
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