Brad Binder reflects on bittersweet weekend at Japan MotoGP

While a sixth-place finish in the Japan MotoGP was enough to move Brad Binder back into the top five of the title race, he is disappointed not to capitalise on the potential Red Bull KTM showed throughout the weekend.

Binder stared the weekend with a bang by being fastest in Friday’s practice. He qualified fifth, but had to quit the sprint race due to an electrical issue before bouncing back with a solid race on Sunday.

Binder’s 2025 team-mate Pedro Acosta in the colours of KTM’s GASGAS team managed to get even more out of the RC16 by recording his maiden pole. But much to KTM’s disappointment, Acosta crashed out of both races. Just a few laps from the chequered flag while holding a comfortable lead in the sprint race and while in a fight for the lead in the main race.

Brad Binder disappointed

The 10 points Binder earned moved him up to 183 to move ahead of Acosta (181) who left Motegi pointless. The 128-point gap between Binder and fourth-place Marc Marquez (311) speaks volumes of the gap between Ducati and the rest.

“Not the race I wanted, but it was all we had today. It was really difficult to keep clean and consistent,” Binder told the KTM website on Sunday.

“In the beginning when I wanted to push on with the boys I kept losing the front. After a while everything felt okay for a section of the race. Then with six to seven laps to go the rear tire went and it was spinning all the way down the straight.”

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Two-horse race

World champion Pecco Bagnaia (382) won the main race in Japan to close the gap to title race leader Jorge Martin (392) to 10 points with three races to go. Enea Bastianini is third on 313 points.

Brad Binder’s younger brother Darryn Binder was in the points again in Japan by recording a 15th place in Moto2. He is 16th in the championship on 50 points.

MotoGP takes a one week breather before heading to Philip Island in Australia for the third last race of the season.