Brad Binder battles heat and grid to seal season-best finish

A much happier Brad Binder was pleased with his efforts at the Mandalika International Circuit in Indonesia, where he fought his way to a season-best fourth-place finish.

The South African rider battled from 15th on the grid in Sunday’s main race, building on his 10th-place finish in Saturday’s sprint. Once again, qualifying had not gone according to plan, leaving him with another challenging start from the middle of the pack.

Nicknamed “Mr Sunday”, Binder’s trademark race-day heroics had been missing so far this season. However, under the sweltering temperatures in the land of tropical wonders, the South African turned up the heat, slicing through the field and narrowly missing out on a podium finish.

After a string of inconsistent results leading into this leg of the championship, Binder expressed his satisfaction with both the race and his RC16 machine.

“Much more happy with how (Sunday) went,” Binder said after the race.

“We made quite a big change in warm-up and straightaway I felt more confident with the front-end. I felt like I was turning better and it was more planted. I could push more.”

This marked the 30-year-old’s best finish of the season after his sixth place finish back in April at the Spanish Grand Prix, and he hopes to carry that momentum into the next round at Phillip Island in Australia in a fortnight.

“Happy to come through the field and better my starting position by a long way. Looking forward to see if we can try and keep this momentum rolling now. Happy also to be back in the fight.”

Team manager Aki Ajo also shared his delight at the team’s progress despite the challenges they’ve faced this season.

“A great day (Sunday) for us after what had been a challenging weekend in Mandalika. We had the potential,” Ajo said.

“It was a very hard race for everyone on the grid and unfortunately Enea (Bastianini) could not finish, but Pedro(Acosta) and Brad fought all the way until the end and this was an important set of results.

“It has been a tough year for us but we have found a way to progress, and results like these help keep the positive mindset,” Ajo concluded.