The KTM rider used all his tires to save himself in Q1 and paid for it in Q2 but he will nevertheless start rather close to the leaders tomorrow and can hope to achieve a good result.
For this second Grand Prix in Valencia, Brad Binder made good progress between FP1 and FP4 and qualified in a good position to hope to aim for the top 5, or even the podium. After a brilliant start to the season with a victory and a fourth place in particular, the rookie driver slowed down, even if he always entered the points in all the races he finished.
Binder returned to the forefront last week on this same Valencia track with a seventh place finish which allowed him to widen the gap in the rookie championship over Álex Márquez. He therefore hopes to continue his momentum tomorrow and has therefore put the chances on his side by having a good Saturday.
The results were not there yesterday with a 17th place in FP1 and a 15th place in FP2, then things improved today with a 12th place in FP3 as well as an eighth place in FP4. Forced to go through Q1, the KTM rider finished first and looked to be a formidable opponent for Q2 but he suffered a tire problem.
“We made good progress this afternoon. I had a good pace in qualifying but as I needed to save myself in Q1 I used the front soft tire and I didn't have one for Q2, I only had a new rear tire.", he explained. “And unfortunately I couldn't do any fast times with the rear tire because it was slipping, and when the conditions improved it had already done too many laps. »
In the end, he will start from ninth place tomorrow and can hope to make a good comeback: “But I'm happy with the day, it went well, the team did a great job. I feel a lot better on the bike now and I have the feeling we can get a good result tomorrow. »
MotoGP Valencia-2 J2: Qualifying
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
