‘Bike was insanely good', two podiums in Qatar for ‘stoked’ Binder

Qatar served up contrasting fortunes for the Petronas Sprinta Racing Team, as John McPhee was taken out twice, while Darryn Binder claimed consecutive podiums in his first year with the team. 

Binder has already matched his podium tally of the entire 2020 season and has positioned himself firmly as a title contender. 

While Binder’s results have been impressive, the South African has also shown improvements in two key areas he highlighted before the season, which were qualifying and consistency. 

Following Sunday’s second race at the Losail International Circuit, Binder said: "It was a really crazy race with some seriously close calls! At the beginning I was quite comfortable at the front and later on I thought that the leading group was smaller, but I soon realised it wasn’t. 

"On the last lap I tried to get the hammer down to launch an attack on [Pedro] Acosta, but I just couldn’t quite do it. 

"I’m so stoked to make it two podiums in a row though! My bike was insanely good and I just can’t thank the team enough.

"I’ve never felt this good in this class before. I feel strong in every session and feel like I can just go out and do what I need to do. I can’t wait to get to Portugal and get the next race underway."

Binder sits nine points behind rookie Pedro Acosta following his incredible win from pit lane heading into round three in Portugal.