The South African driver qualified second and held the same position for much of Saturday’s race, only falling out of podium contention when he was overtaken by winner Johann Zarco on the penultimate lap.
Binder was closing in on Jorge Martin, the only rider leading the way at Phillip Island to risk the soft rear tyre, when Zarco’s twin Ducati Pramac overtook him at the turn 4 hairpin (Miller corner), giving him the chance to pass also Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Binder finished fourth ahead of Martin, continuing his good form, particularly after the introduction of the KTM carbon fiber chassis, which he has been using since the Motegi weekend (test rider Dani Pedrosa had ridden it on its debut in his wild card at Misano).
“When you look at where we were last season compared to today, the step forward is huge,” Binder said. “We made a huge step forward, I felt very good on the bike.”
“We had some excellent qualifying, the best I’ve ever done in MotoGP. It was very nice to line up with no one in front of you. I think we’re not far away, we’re very close to the Ducati. Clearly in the end they had a bit more grip than to us, even though I looked after my tire the whole time. They had a little more grip.”
“But in any case I think it was a bit expected, because we are always a bit more aggressive on the tires than some of our competitors. I know last year I had no tires left with five laps to go and this time I got there ultimately quite competitive.”
Photo by: KTM Images
Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
When Motorsport.com asked him about his reaction to Zarco’s pass that cost him the podium, Binder replied: “It was a bit of a surprise because I was on the qualifying line, let’s say, and I was trying to catch Jorge losing ground.”
“In the end I lost a few positions and it was difficult to recover because all the guys were spreading out on the track.”
Binder admitted that it would have been impossible for the KTM to cover the distance on the soft rear tyre, praising Martin for coming within a lap of victory on the tire which was now virtually finished.
“I knew it would be almost impossible to be with him at first,” she said. “He maintained a crazy pace until about 10 laps to go, when I saw him stabilize for the first time.”
“He did a great job, hats off for making the softs go so far. I think we would have started to struggle earlier.”
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