Brad Binder was in contention for the top spots in the MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix Sprint race. However, while leading, he couldn’t avoid a crash and had to abandon the race.
The Red Bull KTM rider qualified fourth in Barcelona, a result he was pleased with as he mentioned at the end of Saturday: ‘The quali was pretty good, I’m supper happy to have qualified fourth. It’s always great to be right up at the front on the start’.
Regarding the Sprint race, despite a minor setback, Binder was satisfied with his performance: ‘The start was pretty good. Unfortunately I hit the limiter in first gear and I couldn’t get the bike going to second. It was a great start eventhough I had a little bit of a mishap. Other than that, everything was pretty good. I had a really good feeling in the race, everything was working really well, the bike is working incredibly well here’.
However, the crash prevented the South African from achieving a good result: ‘Unfortunately in turn 5 I just washed the front without getting any warning – I was just maybe a little bit straighter than the lap before. Unfortunately that was my race all done. It is what is, it’s never cool to fall out of the first place, but it’s better to crash out of first than it is to ride in 15th like last week’, he said.
Asked about his riding style at the moment of the crash, Binder explained: ‘I was trying to ride clean and I probably shouldn’t have done that, because it looks like I was backing it in a lot less than I normally do, and obviously it puts the weight a little bit in a different place and I just washed the front’.