Binder: “Locked the front then got collected by Augusto”

The pair collided at the beginning of the session, when Binder, who was ahead of Fernandez, lost the front after touching a dirty part of the track.

Fernandez also went wide into the turn, and although he initially saved a crash, the Spaniard had nowhere to go but into Binder as they both crashed.

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“I was behind him and I closed the front first, so it was a mistake as I was pushing the front,” said Fernandez. “But when I saved it he was also closing the front out of the line and I went straight to him. To avoid braking on the dirty line I closed the front.”  

For Binder, the crash came on a day where he was very strong, especially when he fitted the soft tyre late on.

After finishing fourth overall, Binder said: “Today was all good. This morning started off quite ok. The track is a little bit special; the rear grip is really low. 

“It’s difficult to understand how much you can push it, especially on throttle but apart from that we tried something this afternoon and didn’t really like it at the beginning. 

“I locked the front and was going wide, then Augusto locked the front and came sliding and I got collected there. Other than that it was ok. 

“When we put the soft tyre in at the end I was fast and we made it through to Q2. I’ll try and make more improvements for tomorrow.”

Continuing to talk about track conditions, Binder said the Mandalika circuit felt strange in some areas, but that it was mainly due to the different tyre casing supplied by Michelin. 

“This track feels a little bit strange in some places. I feel like I hook up really well and then it just lets go. 

“There’s a different casing to what we normally use and it’s coming from that. We just need to try and shake everything a bit better to try and keep the grip and not lose it. 

“It’s really weird. It’s like there’s not a lot of grip but there’s enough that to understand what’s going on then there is a moment where it just brakes and it has a big slide. 

“The thing is, you need the engine brake to stop but when you turn you kind of need to let it roll. You have to kind of reshape things differently here. It’s all coming down to this different casing.”