Brad Binder finished the first day in Japan, with the first position in the table and the best lap of the Motegi circuit.
The South African rider thus managed to qualify directly for Q2 and was very happy to have been able to find something more on his bike, after a difficult morning on Japanese territory:
– Positive day today, everything worked fine. We started a bit on the side this morning and had to find something else to get things right, especially the engine brake. My guys did a great job of getting this to work for me. Overall I feel very good, it’s good to finish the first day in a positive way and the most important thing is that we are in Q2 tomorrow.
The #33 added in a debrief after the end of the day on track that the new frame provided by KTM helped him to be able to run faster, still intending to do more laps tomorrow, knowing that there is still potential to improve:
– I think for sure the new frame has given me a bit more rear-wheel drive, which has been something I’ve been asking for for a while, so it’s great to have it available and that it can help me. Grip is lap time, so it felt really good. (…) I think my pace was pretty good today, everything felt ok. For sure I want to do more laps tomorrow, to understand everything and keep working, but overall I’m quite happy. We did a good job today, my team worked well, they made my bike feel good. The best Friday we’ve had in a long time.