Explained: Going slow led to ‘wasteful’ Brad Binder crash in Aragon MotoGP
Brad Binder fell out of a top top five result
KTM’s Brad Binder says he was going slower than in previous laps when he fell out of fifth in Sunday’s MotoGP Aragon Grand Prix, which he branded “a waste”.
KTM enjoyed one of its better weekends of the year, as it got three bikes directly into Q2 for the first time since last season’s Catalan GP.
It came away from Arago with a brace of top five results courtesy of Pedro Acosta, who was fourth in the grand prix.
But a double top five in Sunday’s race went walking when Brad Binder crashed going through Turn 3 at the midway point.
Binder says he felt better with the front end of his RC16 at Aragon, but notes that whenever this is the case “it tends to give up on me” following his crash.
“Today it was mint,” he told the media on Sunday.
“I didn’t spin off the line, everything going normal, according to plan. And I just lost the front at Turn 3.
“When I lost it I thought ‘what the hell happened?’ Then I went back to the garage I looked at the data and I had less speed, less front brake and less load on the front tyre.
“So, it’s a little bit tricky because every time I take good confidence with the front and I feel it’s more or less there, it tends to give up on me a little bit.
“So, not ideal for sure, but I need to take the positives from the weekend.
“Every time I felt good and I could do a decent job, I was always more or less in the mix.
“So, if we can hold the performance from this weekend going forward, things can only get better.”
Binder feels he had similar pace to team-mate Pedro Acosta before his crash, saying he was “trying not to be stupid” with pushing his tyres to mount an attack on fourth place.
“Well, I knew here you have to be kind to your rear tyre,” he added.
“So I was trying my best to be good to the edge. And I felt like I had the same pace as him.
“And I was just pretty much trying to be clean, not be stupid, not make mistakes, and when I went sliding off I thought ‘what a waste’. But shit happens.”
Binder’s crash appears to have hinted at what works to give him a better front end on the KTM, however, as he notes: “The way I made the front feel better all weekend was just add weight to it. So, clearly it gives us a bit of a direction.”
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
