Binder feels KTM still have lots work to do to catch up

OBAKENG MELETSE

Things went south in the east of Germany as the Sachsenring threw RedBull KTM plenty of challenges, and the team will head into the summer break with more questions than answers as Silverstone lies in wait in three weeks.

Brad Binder’s poor run in the qualifying session placed him in eleventh position for the sprint, and after having improved from that position to eighth, “Mr Sunday” couldn’t emulate his previous race-day performances as he finished ninth.

The 28-year-old had seventh position well within his grasp but ran off the track after a a mistake at turn 11 of the last lap of the race and opened the door for Marco Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta, who took the invitation with open arms as KTM headed into the break still in search of the winning formula.

The former Moto 3 champion is two points away from his future teammate Pedro Acosta. He believes the bike was a bit better to handle at the weekend but more needs to be done to be competitive.

“We made some big changes for today’s race and everything was a bit easier to handle. It was better,” he said.

“The bike stopped a bit better but we clearly needed to find more because the guys in front were in a league of their own. We got some valuable information to find a bit more speed and to keep the pace all the way through the race.

“On the last lap I lost the front down turn 11 and lost two positions. Not ideal. I know what I am capable of and where we can be. We will keep fighting as hard as we can every session.”

Team manager Francesco Guidotti, meanwhile, said: “The weekend was quite unexpected.

“We thought we’d be in the leading group and it wasn’t to be. At least today we provided the best version of the bike to the riders that we’ve had this weekend, so perhaps we were too conservative on Friday.

“(Sunday) was pretty good but it was not enough. We lost too much time but looking ahead we have homework to do and we’ll be testing with Pol (Espargaro) next week. We want to be ready for Silverstone.”

Ducati’s Jorge Martin threw away the lead to his direct competitor Francesco Bagnaia as a crash with two laps to go allowed the defending Champion to pick up the scraps and take a 10-point lead into the summer break.