BRAD BINDER SAYS MICHELIN’S HARDER REAR TYRE HELPED HIM FIND PACE AT THE RED BULL RING

Friday at the Red Bull Ring delivered a standout day for Brad Binder, with the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider turning in a much stronger performance than the form that has defined much of his recent run. While Pedro Acosta topped both practice sessions, Binder’s pace was a clear step forward: he ended Practice eighth-fastest, a result he described as “much more positive” than he had been experiencing in recent outings.

Binder’s day wasn’t just about speed on the clock—it was also about how the session felt and how he approached the work. After practice, he said he was “super-happy to be straight into the Q2 session,” and added that he “felt pretty good from the first laps” in FP1. His plan, he explained, was to focus on finding rhythm independently and then improving incrementally: “I just really focused on trying to have the best rhythm possible right on my own, and just take small bites out of it each run.”

He also highlighted the advantage of progressing cleanly through the session structure. Binder noted that it was “much nicer going into the last run looking for a couple tenths rather than one second,” suggesting he was already close enough to the pace that the final adjustments were smaller and more manageable.

A key part of Binder’s explanation for why the Austrian round suited him came down to the tyres Michelin brings to the track. He pointed to a “harder tyre construction” used at the Red Bull Ring, designed to cope with the heat generated by the circuit’s frequent, hard accelerations. In Binder’s view, that change affects how the bike behaves: “I think our bike works better here.” He elaborated that the different rear tyre “doesn’t push the front as much,” and that this reduces the front-end problems he “normally” has. The result, he said, is confidence: “So it gives me a bit more confidence just to go out and ride my bike.”

Even with the positive direction, Binder was realistic about the difficulty of extracting a perfect lap at the low-grip venue. “To be honest, I think there’s a couple tenths there,” he said, acknowledging that there was still time available. He also stressed that the Red Bull Ring punishes tiny errors: it’s hard to ride “super-clean” because if a rider misses a braking marker by “like half-a-metre,” “you pay for it.”

Friday’s session also featured a recurring trouble spot for multiple riders: the downhill braking zone at turn four. The report noted that LCR Honda riders had particular issues there, with Johann Zarco running wide twice after crashing in practice, and Diogo Moreira going wide on multiple occasions. Other riders also had moments in the same area, including Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi.

For Binder, however, turn four wasn’t where the day fell apart. He credited the RC16’s stopping performance and said the bike was working well into the corner: “Our bike's working really well into turn four actually.” He went further, calling stopping his strongest area: “To be honest, the strongest point we have is stopping.” In his assessment, the bike was “hooking up better than it ever has,” and he wanted to carry that into the next sessions.

Looking ahead, Binder’s message was straightforward: build on the momentum and see what it can translate into when qualifying and race management come around. “If we can put together a decent enough qualifying and see how we manage to race,” he said, framing Saturday’s challenge as turning Friday’s improved feel into results.