Binder hails ‘incredible’ MotoGP Sprint victory

Brad Binder hailed his ‘incredible’ victory in the MotoGP Sprint race at the Spanish Grand Prix in Jerez after the Red Bull KTM rider’s strategy worked to perfection.

Binder, also a Sprint winner in Argentina at Termas de Rio Honda at Round 2, made a better start from fourth place on the second row after the race was restarted.

A  pile-up on the opening lap involving  Franco Morbidelli, Alex Marquez, Marco Bezzecchi and Augusto Fernandez had resulted in a red flag, but all four were unhurt and able to take their place on the grid again for the 11-lap encounter.

Binder and team-mate Jack Miller fought it out at the front on the factory RC16 machines in a breathless race, but it was the South African who gained the upper hand in the closing stages.

After an unsuccessful attempt to make a decisive pass, with Binder running slightly wide on the brakes, he made his move stick on the penultimate lap.

He extended his lead to hold a valuable advantage going into the final lap and went on to win by four-tenths from 2022 world champion Francesco Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati), who inherited second from Miller after the Australian ran wide on the last lap, missing the chance of a KTM one-two on the rostrum.

Binder, celebrating KTM’s first premier class victory at Jerez, said: “Today was a tough one. With the red flag at the beginning I made sure I got a better start the second time around, and went straight to the front.

“I just had to take it a bit easy to try and bring the tyres up.

“I tried to stay comfortable and super-close to Jack because he had a great pace, and to be able to fight to the end, push, and come home with the win is incredible,” he added.

“I need to say a massive thank you to my team, fantastic to have both of us up on the podium, they’ve been working so terribly hard and it’s paying off. I can’t tell them how much I appreciate it.”

On a good day for KTM, test rider and Jerez wildcard Dani Pedrosa was sixth on another of the Red Bull RC16 machines.