Brad Binder was chuffed with achieving his best result of the MotoGP season at the Indonesia Grand Prix yesterday.

According to The Citizen, the Red Bull KTM rider stormed from 15th on the grid to finish fourth at Mandalika, missing the podium by a second. It is his best finish in 25 races since finishing fourth in San Marino last year.

The Indonesia MotoGP produced a first-time winner in Fermin Aldeguer after drama on the first lap, when newly crowned world champion Marc Marquez crashed out following contact with Marco Bezzecchi. The Spanish rookie took the honours ahead of Binder’s team-mate Pedro Acosta and his own Ducati team-mate Alex Marquez.

Binder storms through field

Binder, who again failed to progress to Q2, could only finish the sprint race in 10th place on Saturday, one place outside the points. He says mechanical changes for the main race made the difference.

“We made quite a big change in warm-up and straightaway I felt more confident with the front-end. I felt like I was turning better and it was more planted. I could push more,” Binder told the KTM website.

“Happy to come through the field and better my starting position by a long way. Looking forward to see if we can try and keep this momentum rolling now. Happy also to be back in the fight.”

Good weekend for South Africa

Binder is still 11th in the championship on 118 points, 10 points behind Johann Zarco in 10th place.

It was a fruitful weekend all around for South African riders at Mandalika, as Binder’s brother Darryn and Ruché Moodley scored points. Darryn finished the Moto2 race in 11th place to score five points, while Moodley scored three points for his 13th-place finish in Moto3.

After a one-week break, the calendar’s eastern swing concludes with another double header in Australia and Malaysia. Thereafter the tour returns to Europe for the season’s final two rounds in Portugal and Valencia.