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South African star crashes out twice at Le Mans to slide down to 14th in title race.
Brad Binder’s MotoGP season is not going according to plan. Picture: Ref Bull KTM
Brad Binder apologised to his Red Bull KTM team after his dismal showing at the French MotoGP at the weekend.
Binder failed so score points at Le Mans Bugatti after crashing out of both the sprint and main race to slide down to 14th in the title race.
Johann Zarco romped to victory in a chaotic wet main race on Sunday to become the first Frenchman to win in front of his home crowd in 71 years. Marc Marquez (171 points) stretched his lead at the top of standings over his brother Alex Marquez (149), with Pecco Bagnaia (120) still in third.
Brad Binder stumped
“Not too much to say. My race was a lot shorter than I would have liked,” Binder told the KTM website.
“Sometimes things do not work out and sorry to my team because they deserved a good result after all their efforts lately.”
After failing to progress to Q2, Binder started 13th on the grid. He moved up to seventh place during the sprint race, but crashed out on lap five. Binder’s main race, during which he also had to serve a two long-lap penalty, ended on the seventh lap on Sunday.
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He started the race on wet tyres, but pitted for slicks as riders frantically swopped between wet and dry configurations in the first half of the race. Zarco’s gamble to start and stay on wet tyres paid dividends as the LCR Honda man beat Marc Marques by almost 20 seconds.
Tricky conditions
“Very tricky to understand what tires we should have had at the beginning. We had wets, came in for slicks and I thought things were going quite well but into the last corner there was a bit more water than I expected and it just slipped away,” Binder added.
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“I picked up, did my two long laps and was planning to come in but it just washed in Turn 1. It was time to have been on the wets. We’ll try again in Silverstone.”
Brad Binder’s younger brother Darryn Binder had an even worse outing in France as the Gresini Moto2 rider broke his left-hand during practice. Like Moto3 rider Ruché Moodley, he is ruled out indefinitely.
The MotoGP show now moves to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.
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