“Horrendous”, “worst race of my life” - KTM chatter misery in Qatar MotoGP sprint

KTM came away from Saturday’s sprint at the MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix without points, with Brad Binder calling it “the worst race of my life”.

The Austrian manufacturer has not had a good start to the 2025 season, as the changes it has made to its RC16 for this year have seemingly wiped out the bike’s strong points.

To boot, KTM riders have continued to struggle with rear chatter problems, which is an issue that has carried over from 2024.

Last year’s Qatar GP proved to be a good event for KTM, as Brad Binder managed to get onto the podium in both races.

But in Saturday’s sprint, the brand’s riders combined to score no points, with Maverick Vinales its leading runner in 10th - 12.554s off race winner Marc Marquez.

All KTM riders elected to go with the soft rear tyre, which backfired as Vinales and Pedro Acosta both tumbled out of the points in the closing stages of the 11-lap contest.

Binder was last of the KTM quartet in 14th, and says the tyre choice “was the last of my problems” as rear chatter sent him off track numerous times trying to avoid crashes.

“For sure definitely not the right choice of tyre, but that was the last of my problems to be honest,” he said.

“I had four times I went over the outside kerb and off the track.

“So, probably the worst race of my life for sure.

“Definitely not a good one, but it is what it is. It was a little bit tricky and for tomorrow we need to try to get things under control.”

Acosta began the Qatar weekend in positive form, branding Friday as his best day of the season so far.

But he could only manage 12th in qualifying, while “critical” chatter issues in the sprint saw him miss out on the points in 11th.

“Horrendous, to be honest,” said Acosta, whose future at KTM remains a talking point amidst its struggles.

“We tried things from last year and they worked really ok in the braking, which is where I really suffered a lot in Austin.

“But the chatter that we have now is really critical. For this, we have to check what we can do.”