Despite his frustration at having come extremely close to Q2, Brad Binder did not hide his relief at having found the feeling he had so missed on his KTM in Qatar.
Brad Binder arrived at the Spanish Grand Prix with the desire to start from scratch after a particularly complicated weekend in Qatar two weeks ago. Without any feeling despite numerous modifications made by the mechanics to his KTM, The South African suffered and finished as the last representative of the brand (except for the penalty received by Maverick Viñales which made him finish behind him).
Starting 14th in FP1 this morning, he gradually gained confidence and saw his pace pick up a notch in Practice, to the point where he eased off a little "packed" according to him and made a mistake. An error which ultimately cost him a place in Q2 by a very small margin since he had to ride with his second machine, which did not have the same settings, and which did not allow him to take 10th place.
He finished 11th, 55 seconds too fast, forcing him into Q1 this Saturday. However, the relief of seeing his feeling return was paramount when it came to assessing this first day, as was the hope of having two good races.
“I missed Q2 by 55, which is a bit frustrating, but honestly, we made a big step forward today. We made a change that gave me some rear grip back, and it felt really good. I got a bit carried away and ended up on the ground, so I had to finish the session on my other bike. Despite everything, we showed some good signs, and I feel more confident for tomorrow. We have to get through Q1 first. Hopefully, we can reach Q2 and have an even better sprint race.”, did he declare.
Spanish Grand Prix Practice Results :
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
