South African star says it is the best feeling he has had on his RC16 in a long time.
Brad Binder’s steady progress towards regaining his best MotoGP form continued with a solid points haul at his Red Bull KTM’s team home race in Austria at the weekend.
After qualifying in 11th place, Binder followed up his fifth place on Saturday, his best sprint race finish in over a year, with a solid seventh place on Sunday. The 14 points he earned at the Red Bull Ring saw him move up on to 11th in the championship on 82 points.
Brad Binder upbeat
The KTM man showed some good pace throughout the weekend and secured automatic entry into Q2 for the first time in a while. He failed to put together one decent lap in Q2, but was very upbeat with his progress on the RC16 that has come in for a lost of criticism this year.
“It’s the best feeling I’ve had in a really long time,” he told the KTM website after the sprint race.
Despite not making one of his customary flying starts, Binder rode his way to fifth place. Disaster struck when another rider forced him off the track. Missing a wing after the incident, he fought back bravely. His seventh place meant KTM finished with three bikes in the top seven after Pedro Acosta and Enea Bastianini finished fourth and fifth respectively.
“I didn’t get a good start but made some moves and was up to fifth. I was then sent into the fans by another rider and lost a few seconds there and one of my wings.
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‘Long’ race
“It was tough from then on because it was hard here for the wheelie without the aero and the bike was wobbling more. It was a long race,” Binder added.
“I felt like I put up a good fight and did all I could. We got seventh today but the potential was there for more.”
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Marc Marques continued his dominance with yet another double in Austria. The Ducati man moved up to 418 points to stretch his lead to 142 over his brother Alex.
Darryn in the points
Speaking of siblings, Brad Binder’s brother Darryn Binder finished in the Moto2 points for the second time in third races by crossing the line in 15th place.
Ruché Moodley, who made a comeback from injury for the second time in his debut Moto3 season, finished outside the points in 17th place.
MotoGP moves to Hungary this weekend for the second part of the double header.
