MotoGP | Binder worried about ‘enormous’ gap to Ducati

KTM failed to fight for the top spots on home soil, paying for its setup errors. On Friday, Brad Binder managed to contain the Ducati dominance and ensure direct qualification for Q2, but with a fork that he considered too hard, he did not shine and only placed 12th in qualifying. In the Sprint, while Jack Miller took fifth place, Binder battled with Pol Espargaro for eighth place and won his duel, before gaining another position with the crash of Marc Marquez.

“Honestly, we made good progress between qualifying and the Sprint,” Binder explained on Saturday, after taking seventh place. “In qualifying I had really big problems with braking. It was already like that on Friday afternoon. I managed to do a good lap at the end to get into Q2, but it seemed like the front tyre was overheating.”

“In the morning it was exactly the same and I was struggling to be consistent with my times because I could never brake, I just kept locking up and going straight. We changed the fork settings completely for the race and suddenly things were more manageable. It was much better, much easier to ride the bike well. Unfortunately it took me a few laps at the beginning to understand what the differences were and how to use them.”

“After that, I tried my best to catch up with the others and managed to close the gap a bit, but it was a bit too late. I think we made good progress.”

Binder had hoped to make progress in the long race, but there was none. A good start saw him move up to fifth, on Miller’s wheel, before passing his teammate, who then crashed. The South African was unable to hold onto fourth, however, surrendering to a comeback from Marc Marquez. Fifth place, which made Binder the first rider not to ride a Ducati, was ultimately satisfying, but it also showed the current limitations of the KTM.

“It went quite well. I can’t complain, I did my best from the first lap to the end. I had a good start, which was a plus. After the Sprint I knew it was going to be a very difficult race to make sure I got to the finish line with some rubber left, especially in the middle of the tire. I did my best to manage the situation. My team did a good job to reduce the power and make everything work, so I could consume as little as possible.”

“Overall, I can’t complain. I would have liked to have done more, but we clearly didn’t have the pace of the top three or four. I did my best, so that’s it. We’ll try again next week.”

More than the position, it is the huge gap from the winner, Pecco Bagnaia, that worries Brad Binder: “The position seems better than the gap from the leaders! Usually it is a few seconds, three or four, but 18 is a huge gap. It is clear that we have work to do, we must improve”.