Brad Binder has won three times at Phillip Island in lower classes. Picture: Red Bull KTM
With all eyes on the two-horse title race between Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia at the Australian MotoGP this weekend, Brad Binder has the rare privilege of flying under the radar.
Binder will even play second fiddle to his Red Bull KTM team-mate Jack Miller, who’ll count on huge support at his home track at Phillip Island.
The South African star has a good record at the 4.45km layout having won their twice in Moto2 and once in Moto3. His best finish in two premier class races Down Under is fourth which he achieved last year, less than a second behind race winner Johann Zarco.
KTM is confident going into the Australian Grand Prix after showing some good improvement two weeks again in Japan. Binder topped the time sheets on the Friday at Motegi before his 2025 team-mate Pedro Acosta grabbed his maiden MotoGP pole position. Acosta (181 points) crashed out of both races which allowed Binder (183) to leapfrog him into fifth place in the championship.
Out in front, Martin (392) leads world champion Bagnaia (382) by 10 points. They are out of sight of Enea Bastianini (313) and Marc Marquez (311), which in turn are mathematically clear of Binder and Acosta with just three rounds left.
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“It will be a really challenging weekend, The most important thing for me is to arrive at Valencia (in the last race) with options,” said Martin, who was in the title race last year until the last race.
“There are three races before that. If you make a mistake it will be a disaster. So I am going to try to be focused and be competitive.”
Bagnaia, who won back-to-back premier class titles in 2022 and 2023, is confident he has enough chances to overtake Martin. The Italian won his first title after hauling in Fabio Quartararo in 2022.
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“We have to be thinking about the championship and try to do the maximum without taking too much risk. And here at Phillip Island if you take the risk, it can be costly,” said Bagnaia.
“Tomorrow looks like rain, Saturday looks windy and Sunday looks okay, but cold.”
The weather at Phillip Island can be unpredictable. Last year, the main race moved to the Saturday due to huge storms predicted for the Sunday. The sprint race on the Sunday was eventually canceled because of gale-force winds.
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If all goes according to plan this weekend, the sprint race will take place at 6am on Saturday and the main race at 5am on Sunday.
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