Binder vows to bounce back as fighting for 10th is ‘not much fun’

Brad Binder really is stuck between a rock and a hard place. The harder the Red Bull KTM rider tries to regain his best form and to prolong his MotoGP career in doing so, the more he struggles to make an impact.

Binder finished the Hungary Grand Prix in 10th place on Sunday, but he would have struggled to finish in the points had five riders ahead of him not crashed out on the first lap. Three of the casualties who went down on the very first corner at Balaton Park were Marco Bezzecchi, Jorge Martin and Fabio Di Giannantonio, the top three in the title race.

Binder, whose factory KTM contract expires at the end of the season and still hasn’t secured a ride for 2027, again struggled to progress to Q2 on Saturday. He could only qualify in 17th place and finished the sprint race in a lowly 16th place on Saturday.

Brad Binder wants more

On Sunday, he finished more than 24 seconds behind Marc Marquez’s blistering winning pace, and also more than 23 seconds behind runner-up and team-mate Pedro Acosta.

“I expected a lot more from this GP. I was missing pace. The average was not there. I was pushing too much to do something mediocre,” Binder told the KTM website.

“I need to do something this week to work out how to improve because it is not much fun going for 10th. I’m hoping for a much better weekend at Brno.”

Marquez making waves

Binder moved up to 48 points, but dropped down one place to 13th in the premier class championship. Despite not finishing on Sunday, Bezzecchi (180 points) and Martin (160) still lead the title race ahead of Di Giannantonio (138) and Acosta (132). Marquez (108) moved up to fifth after his 100th career win in Hungary.

In Moto3, teenage Ruché Moodley qualified in 13th place in search of his first points of the season, but crashed out on the first lap on Sunday.

MotoGP takes a break this weekend before resuming with a double header in Czechia and the Netherlands.