Brad Binder: Pumping and spinning ‘a lot more under control’

Brad Binder matched his second place finish at the Qatar MotoGP during Saturday’s sprint, but the factory KTM rider was happier with how he achieved the result.

Binder was very close to challenging Jorge Martin in the sprint, and while the gap to Francesco Bagnaia was over a second in the grand prix when the checkered flag dropped, the South African was able to keep the world champion on his toes throughout. 

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“We can’t complain,” said Binder. “Two second places to start the season is fantastic. I’m much happier with the second place of today compared to the second place of yesterday.

“Yesterday I felt we were missing something but today it was much better. I knew today was going to be a super difficult race because we are super hard on the rear tyre sometimes.

“I needed to get it to the end so I was as clean as I could be. It was hard to stay composed because I could see Pecco was just there.

“It was like a carrot dangling and you just want to go for it. But I knew that if I attempted to push I might catch up a bit but I would lose a couple of seconds in the last few laps.

“I had to be really clever. It was awesome battling Jorge and I had a lot of fun. Let’s see if we can improve a bit because it would be awesome to give these boys a fight next time around.”

Edge grip was the main issue Binder was dealing with in the sprint, however, pumping and spinning as a result was greatly reduced.

Binder added: “There was one thing we needed to improve from yesterday. For me I had a lot of pumping and the grip was a little bit inconsistent.

“Once I started to spin a little bit and cracked the throttle and it never hooked up. It’s always really good for the first three laps of the race, then unfortunately it has a little bit of a slump and then remains consistent again.

“The guys worked really hard on the electronics, changed the set-up of the bike a little and everything was a lot more under control. We never had that big vibration.

“Today I had a little bit but like the other guys had and when the tyre started to wear I had more of it, which I never had all weekend which was a surprise. For me it’s clear what we need to improve.”