Binder: ‘We found a good direction’, but loss of dry laps halts progress

The KTM rider was only 21st following the opening day of action, however, the two-time MotoGP race winner found nearly a full second in order to finish the penultimate day of MotoGP testing at Sepang in tenth place.

A damp morning was then followed by a brief spell of track action in dry conditions, before more rain led to the leaderboard remaining unchanged during the closing hours.

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But despite missing out on a considerable amount of dry track-time, Binder believes KTM have found a direction on his side of the garage.

"Not a lot of riding today," added Binder. "I was sat in the box for a couple of hours this morning and then when we did go I felt good straight away. Was so nice to put in better tyres than yesterday. I can’t complain. 

"We tried a couple of different things which felt good and we found a good direction but we needed a few more runs to play with it a bit. Unfortunately the rain came down but when the rain came down I felt strong as well."

Binder was seen testing a new fairing that included new diffusers on the front-end in a bid to improve turning, however, the South African felt very little difference. 

Binder said: "Honestly, I was just trying to figure out what they were for. I didn’t feel much of a difference. 

"Basically we just played with the balance of the bike. Yesterday we just threw parts at the thing and figured out what we liked. 

"We kind of put that together a little bit and today was just about narrowing that down. We tried to get a little bit more stability on the brakes and throttle to make the bike a little bit less nippy." 

Key to KTM’s potential success in 2023 will be sorting out their qualifying woes which have impacted the Austrian manufacturer majorly over the last few seasons.

But after choosing not to set a time attack on day one, Binder will now have to wait until Sunday.

"I planned on putting in a new tyre to see what we could really do but it’s complicated at this track because tyre drop is so huge," added Binder. 

"By the time you get to the end of the tyre you are two-and-a-half seconds slower and you’re doing that the whole afternoon, the whole morning and then when you put in a new one you kind of don’t have any references. 

"It was tricky but I'm really looking forward to putting in another one and seeing what we can do."