Brad Binder feeling bad, bad, bad, bad vibrations

Morgan Bolton

A technical fault didn’t help Brad Binder’s cause on Sunday in his efforts to regain his early season promise at the Spanish GP.

Red Bull KTM and the South African rider started the MotoGP calendar with a solid podium in Qatar, following it up with a decent fourth in Portugal. What has followed, although not grievously bad results, has been somewhat underwhelming.

Binder battled gamely at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas earlier this month to secure a ninth-place finish, while at the recently concluded event in Jerez, Spain, they finished outside the top five. Indeed, it was a pretty average race day out for the entire team as teenage sensation Pedro Acosta finished in tenth.

After the race, KTM’s team manager Fransceso Guidotti explained that Binder’s efforts were hampered by an issue on the RB16.

“Brad had some tricky vibration today through the left corners and that didn’t allow him to ride as he could,” he said. “He took some good points but this is not his potential, for sure.”

Nevertheless, Binder managed to launch himself into podium contention early on. As the GP continued, he dropped down into a tussle for fourth, which was eventually decided by half a second at the finish line between the sixth-placed Binder and Alex Marques two places higher.

Binder admitted that it was an awkward race, revealing that the vibrations were a surprising development.

Said the 28-year-old: “(Sunday’s) race was a little bit tricky.

“I did not get the same start as (Saturday’s sprint race) and just didn’t have the same pace as the boys up front. I tried my best but it wasn’t quite our day.

“I had a lot of chatter from the first lap and it made it difficult to carry corner speed. We need to sit down and work out what was going on because that was the first time we had the issue this weekend.”

Binder finds himself seventh in the world riders’ championship standings on 59 points, with current leader Jorge Martin already opening up a healthy 33-point lead over him. Arguably, more concerning for Binder is that rookie Pedro Acosta – racing in KTM’s sister team – is 10 points clear in fourth.

It is a standing that Binder will want to rectify in the coming weeks, starting with next weekend’s French MotoGP at the world famous Le Mans.