Brad Binder “I had a rolling burnout again!”, Jack Miller “nipped by Rins”

Brad Binder enjoyed his highest-scoring MotoGP weekend since the Qatar season opener with 4-6 finishes at Aragon.

That was despite spinning off the line in both races, even though his seventh place was on the cleaner side of a dirty grid.

Binder spent the middle stages behind rookie Pedro Acosta, which became a battle for third after Alex Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia tangled ahead with 5 laps to go.

But Acosta kept just out of reach.

“I had a great plan last night to not spin off the line, and I had a rolling burnout again like yesterday!" Binder grinned.

“I managed to pick my way through and pass a few guys. It was difficult not to make mistakes because the front tyre was cooking behind people until the last quarter of the race.

“I tried to make up time on the exit of corners because I couldn’t really enter too fast with the front cooking. But I ended up paying for it at the end with the left side of the tyre just dead.

“I tried my best to get past Pedro but there was nothing left from the rear!

“Other than that we made some quite positive steps this weekend. We tried something different with the balance of the bike and it seemed to work over the race distance.”

Team-mate Jack Miller began strongly, turning 15th on the grid into eighth by the end of the opening lap. But the Australian was soon among those struggling for rear grip.

After losing out on ninth to Alex Rins on the last lap, he was then among three riders to receive a 16-second post-race tyre pressure penalty, dropping him to 15th.

“Long old race,” said Miller. “Different track conditions again, it’s been dirty most of the weekend but seemed more greasy today.

“I tried my best. Hard to handle the [medium] rear tyre and had a big highside moment on the opening out of the last corner. 

“I got into my rhythm, just trying to nurse it. There were quite a few limitations when crossing from the edge to the middle of the tyre… but I was able to bring it home.

“No mistakes in the race but I struggled to go with the boys in front of me. We’ll keep plugging away.

“Happy to come home with a top ten but getting nipped by Rins there on the back straight on the last lap - I was doing all I could to be as precise as I could be, but got a bad drive and he was able to out-drag me down the back straight.

“We’ll come back again in Misano.”

Another wild-card for test rider Pol Espargaro will raise KTM numbers to five this weekend.

“Now go to Misano also looking to the test afterwards and Pol’s wildcard which will give us some help for the future,” said team manager Francesco Guidotti.

The first of the Misano MotoGP rounds will start with Binder three points behind Acosta, who holds fifth in the world championship. 

Miller, who could be officially confirmed as a Pramac Yamaha rider during the team's home Italian races, is 15th and three points from Monster Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo.