BRAD BINDER SAYS HE HAD TO SAVE FUEL AFTER SELECTING MOTO2 MAPPING

Brad Binder capped his latest KTM outing at the Red Bull Ring with his best result of the season, finishing sixth after starting from 11th on the grid. The South African, who is set to move to BMW in the Superbike World Championship in 2027, made a strong early push and was already up to sixth after a few laps, with Marc Marquez right ahead. Binder then benefited from a mistake by the Ducati rider, slipping through before being caught by Fermin Aldeguer on the Gresini Ducati. In the end, Binder won the on-track fight with Aldeguer, taking a result that was a clear step forward from his earlier season form—he had been seventh at both the Thailand opener and in Barcelona.

Binder described the weekend as a positive whole despite a difficult start to the day. In the warm-up, he crashed—an incident that also happened to Pedro Acosta. “The crash in the warm-up didn’t help,” Binder said. “Apart from that, it was quite good. I’m also happy with the pace we achieved in the race and happy with the work we did. Congratulations to the team and also to Pedro on his first win—he really deserved it.”

Race management became a major theme for Binder once he had established himself near the front. He explained that he never had the outright speed to stay with Ogura when he was chasing alone, and that he received a warning about fuel consumption. “I never had the speed to keep up with Ogura,” Binder said. “When I was riding alone, I got the warning about fuel consumption.”

As the race unfolded, Binder’s strategy shifted from pure pace to preservation. “I had to save fuel and select the damn Moto2 mapping,” he added. He said the effect was immediately visible in the way he was reeled in. “I was caught by Marc and Aldeguer as if I was standing still. Of course that wasn’t ideal! As soon as it was possible again to open the throttle normally, I was able to make up ground.”

Binder also noted how the Red Bull Ring’s braking zones amplify the consequences of different performance levels. “When that happens, you come so much faster to the braking points that you have to find your references again,” he said. Even with those challenges, he maintained that the weekend was his strongest so far. “It was definitely my best weekend of the current season,” Binder concluded. He finished just over eight seconds behind his teammate Pedro Acosta.