Brad Binder finished sixth at Jerez on Sunday. Picture: Red Bull KTM
Brad Binder and his Red Bull KTM team will have to find a spark somewhere in order reignite their challenge in the MotoGP championship.
Binder had to answer to the Ducati brigade during the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday and finished in sixth place, 7.8 seconds off the pace. Had title race leader Jorge Martin not crash out while in the lead, Ducati would probably have occupied the top six places in the main race at Jerez.
Pecco Bagnaia won in emphatic fashion from the resurgent Marc Marquez, followed by Marco Bezzecchi, Alex Marquez and Enea Bastianini, all riding Ducatis.
Binder, his team-mate Jack Miller and KTM Tech3 rider Pedro Acosta, who has been sensational on the RC16 this season, could just not match the pace up front. Acosta finished more than 20 seconds off the pace in 10th, while Miller crashed out behind him.
KTM’s wild card entry Dani Pedrosa also crashed out.
Another mediocre weekend which saw Binder crash out of the sprint race has saw the Red Bull KTM man slip from sixth to seventh in the standings. Martin leads with 92 points, followed by Bagnaia (75), Bastianini (70), Pedro Acosta (69), Maverick Vinales (63), Marc Marquez (60) and Binder (59).
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After taking the lead in the first corner from fourth on the grid during the sprint race in Jerez, Binder could not repeat his heroics on Sunday.
“I did not get the same start as yesterday and just didn’t have the same pace as the boys upfront. I tried my best but it wasn’t quite our day,” Binder told the KTM website after the main race.
“There was 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.”
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KTM has Monday to work on their machines during the one-day official MotoGP test at Jerez. According to team boss Francesco Guidotti, they will try out some things Pedrosa used during the Spanish Grand Prix.
“We have the test and some interesting things to try. We’ll work tomorrow, and also at the factory and look ahead to the next races,” said Guidotti.
Brad Binder’s younger brother Darryn Binder finished 19th in Moto2 on Sunday. The Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP rider has only earned one point this season.
The next race is the French Grand Prix at Le Mans from 10 to 12 May.
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