Tricky weather rains on Brad Binder’s parade in Japan

Brad Binder was disappointed with his haul of nine points at the Japan MotoGP after the weekend started with great promise.

Armed with a new carbon chassis, the Red Bull KTM rider broke the Motegi lap record during practice on Friday and went on to qualify in fifth place. After a second-place finish in the sprint race, Binder crashed out on lap six of the main race on Sunday.

Torrential rain

What did not help Binder’s cause was the weather. The rain started bucketing down as the grid was assembling on Sunday, with the race being declared “flag to flag”. Binder followed a string of riders into the pits at the end of the first lap to swap bikes to wet tyre configuration, but rejoined outside the top 10.

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He managed to gain ground on the top five before locking up into turn 3.

The race was red-flagged after 12 laps with the results declared due to fading light after a long delay.

“I started to feel good in the rain and with good pace. But I had a small lock going into Turn 3 and that was it,” Binder told the KTM website.

Brad Binder positive

“We were fast in all sessions and to bring home a podium in the sprint was fantastic. But unfortunately it was tricky with the weather conditions and we came in after the first lap for the bike swap.

“Overall I think we had a positive weekend here in Japan. Thank you to my team for their hard work. We’ll try and make up for it next time around.”

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With six races to go, Binder is fourth in the title race on 201 points, 30 ahead of Aleix Espargaro (171).

Jorge Martin (316 points) took the double in Japan to close the gap to title race leader Francesco Bagnaia (319) to three points. Marco Bezzecchi is third on 265 points.

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Darryn Binder in the points

Brad Binder’s younger brother Darry Binder finished in the points for the second consecutive week in Moto2 after returning from an injury layoff. The Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP rider earned sixth points for finishing 10th in Japan.

He is 18th in the Moto2 title race on 28 points.

The next stop on the calendar is the Indonesia MotoGP from 13 to 15 October.