Spanish GP “a good lesson” for Brad Binder from SA after two falls ends his race prematurely

• Brad Binder qualified for the Spanish Grand Prix but survived a difficult race.

• The South African crashed twice in the race.

• Binder says he can only learn from experience and improve.

• You can find more car stories on Wheels24

Red Bull KTM Factory Racing emerged from 25 laps of tense and sun-drenched MotoGP action at the Circuit de Jerez – Angel Nieto with three bikes in the points and Miguel Oliveira in 11th for the fourth round of the season.

For 35 years, the Circuit de Jerez – Angel Nieto has been one of the main venues for Grand Prix motorcycle races and a popular and useful testing ground. The familiarity of the 4.4 km long layout provided close and fascinating action during practice and qualification, with hundredths of a second often sharing most of the grid.

The Gran Premio Red Bull de España started in sunny and warm conditions, but at significantly lower temperatures than the 40-degree burner of 2020. Brad Binder started reasonably from eleventh and fourth row on the grid, but lost the lead. Bicycle traction in the second corner of the second lap and crashed. He managed to get back on his feet and tried to catch up with the pack to save a few points, but another slow fall at Turn 13 ended his day.

Miguel Oliveira had to assert himself with grip difficulties and the difficulty of asserting himself from 16th on the grid to the top of the KTM quartet. At the end of the distance, the Portuguese was three seconds behind the top ten. MotoGP will stay in Jerez on Monday for a one-day IRTA test and will travel next to the historic Le Mans circuit for the Shark Grand Prix de France on May 16.

Brad Binder

KTM media

Team comments

Brad Binder said after his race: “I felt great in the warm-up this morning (on Sunday) and then had a good start to the race, but unfortunately when I went into Turn 2 on the second lap, it looked like I was a little too relaxed and hit the brakes at the wrong moment and when I fell in the corner the front just washed out, ignoring where you are in the pack and keeping your grades is a good lesson for the future.

“It’s also disappointing because I had good pace all weekend and felt good. We could have done a decent job today. Excuse the team because they did a good job throughout the GP and deserved a result.”

Mike Leitner, Red Bull KTM Race Manager: “We can’t be satisfied with 11th place because after Brad’s good qualification yesterday and the consistency in the warm-up we had some expectations. We saw a lot of crashes here and unfortunately Brad had one on the second lap, so his race was longer Or less.” It was difficult for Miguel to make a lot of time from 16th on the grid and he was in traffic for too long.

“We have to accept 11th place, but we’ll see how high the competition is and now we have to work on the test here tomorrow to find something special with the bike. It was positive that three of our bikes even finished in the points are.” if it weren’t for our goal to be there. The goal now has to be better at Le Mans. “

Brad Binder

KTM media