Brad Binder is hopeful he can get more out of his KTM RC16 in France. Picture: AFP
Fresh from hugely successful weekend, Brad Binder believes his Red Bull KTM team can get even faster when MotoGP moves to France from 12 to 14 May.
Binder was upbeat after clocking 73 laps and recording the eighth fastest time during official testing at Jerez on Monday. The one-day session is one of a handful of official test days on the MotoGP. It was held at the same track where KTM achieved back-to-back double podiums at the weekend.
Marco Bezzecchi recorded the fastest lap on Monday at 1:36.574, which was 0.494 seconds quicker than Binder’s best effort. His KTM team-mate Jack Miller was further adrift in 14th place.
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“I’m happy with how the day panned out. We got through our full test plan, which doesn’t always happen,” Binder told the KTM website.
“We used our time wisely and now the guys can go back and look through the data to help us improve. There was some new aero to try and, as is always the case, you can gain a little bit in some areas and lose in others.
“It means you really change the balance of the bike as well and it can be complicated to know immediately when you test back-to-back. It takes some fine-tuning.”
Red Bull KTM’s technical manager Sebastian Risse was happy with what Binder and team-mate Jack Miller’s RC16s achieved during testing.
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“We did a lot of test runs and gathered a lot of information and for that we’re happy with the outcome,” said Risse.
“There was a lot on the aero side to work on because there is a second homologation open. We also worked on chassis, electronics and torque delivery.
“We found some interesting aspects that we hope we can improve in the next races and take the benefit.”
The 32 points Binder collected at Jerez helped him move up to third in the world championship standings. Current world champion Francesco Bagnaia leads the way on 87 points, followed by Bezzecchi on 65.
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