Brad has won two main and two sprint races in MotoGP. Picture: Getty Images
Brad Binder will line in Qatar to start his fifth season in MotoGP at the weekend.
While the Red Bull KTM rider made an empathic start to his premier class career with a win in only his third race, the top step of the podium has proved elusive since. But each of his four wins – two in main races and two in sprint races – have been nothing short of epic.
The Citizen Motoring takes a look at his four wins ahead of the 2024 season in which Binder will dearly try to add to the list.
Few people would have given the KTM man a chance when he lined seventh on the grid for the Czech MotoGP in Brno in 2020. Especially, after recording a 13th place and DNF (did not finish) in his first two races.
But he worked his way through the field and took the lead from Franco Morbidelli with nine laps to go. He opened up a big gap to take the chequered flag by more than five seconds from Morbidell.
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Arguably, one of the best rides in recent MotoGP history was Binder’s performance in Austria in 2021.
Lying sixth with four laps to go, the heavens opened up at the Red Bull Ring, his team’s home track. The frontrunner swapped their machines for bikes fitted with wet tyres, but Binder risked staying out on slicks.
He slipped and slid, but somehow managed to stay upright to beat runner-up Francesco Bagnaia by almost 13 seconds.
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After going throughout the 2022 season without a victory, Binder found his groove in the newly-introduced sprint format in 2023. And in only the second MotoGP sprint race he produced another ride for the ages.
The South African stormed off the line from 15th on the grid to take the lead within three laps. But his work had only begun. Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini stayed with him all along to the end, with Binder taking the chequered flag by seven hundredths of a second from Bezzecchi.
Four weeks later, Binder stood on the top step of the podium again after the sprint race at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The KTM man made a flying start from fourth on the grid and was lying in second place when the race was red-flagged due to a crash on the first lap. He went one better at the restart and went up to first in the first corner. After swapping places with teammate Jack Miller twice, Binder held on to beat Bagnaia by 0.428 seconds.
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