‘Keeping his head down’ pays off for high-flying Brad Binder

Brad Binder reaped the rewards from “keeping his head down’’ at the French MotoGP on Sunday.

The Red Bull KTM rider recovered from a nightmare start to finish sixth at Le Mans, 13.6 seconds adrift of winner Marco Bezzecchi in the 1 000th MotoGP race. The 10 points he earned saw him close the gap on world championship leader Francesco Bagnaia to just 13 points.

Bagnaia, who crashed out on Sunday, has 94 points after five rounds, followed by Bezzecchi (93), Binder (81) and Jorge Martin (80).

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First lap wobble

After earning his third podium place in five sprint races on Saturday, Binder made another good start from 10th on the grid on Sunday, but he ran wide at turn four to fall back to 18th place. In usual fashion he worked his way through the field while also benefitting from many front runners crashing out.

“I had a really good feeling for the race and had a fantastic start. But unfortunately in turn four someone hit me and I went from sixth of seventh all the way back. A tough one and then a tough fight to come through,” Binder told the KTM website.

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“It was important to keep my head down then and bring the bike home.”

Binder was also penalised with a long lap penalty, a sanction Red Bull KTM team manager Francesco Guidotti calls “dubious”.

KTM lauds Brad Binder

“A positive weekend even if we did not get what we deserved today,” said Guidotti.

“Brad had contact on the first lap and was as far down as 18th and he recovered as strong as usual, even with a dubious long lap penalty.

“We have two fantastic riders in this team and we will keep supporting them to the maximum. It was a good weekend with both riders into Q2 on Friday and we’ll look forward to the next GP with confidence.”

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Binder’s team-mate Jack Miller could not capitalise on qualifying fourth at Le Mans. He crashed out in both races to remain on 49 points, which leaves him eighth in the title race.

MotoGP now moves to Mugello for the Italian Grand Prix from 9 to 11 June.