Constantly in danger of crashing, technical problems in qualifying and sprint – Brad Binder was far behind rookie Pedro Acosta’s performance in Indonesia
With sixth place in the sprint and second place in the Grand Prix, Pedro Acosta was the clear spearhead of KTM in Indonesia. The rookie had already qualified directly for Q2 on Friday, while Brad Binder, Jack Miller and Augusto Fernandez failed.
Binder had problems on the day of practice: “Unfortunately, whenever I wanted to push a little harder, the front wheel threatened to collapse. I never manage to finish good laps. We have homework.”
In spring, Binder had numerous crashes over the front wheel. With changes to the set-up, this rate decreased. “But it looks like we’re in the same mess with the new set-up,” Binder sighs.
“We put a lot of weight at the front to get the front tire to stick, but now it kept caving in.” That was not his only problem at Mandalika. When he went out for his second qualifying attempt, there were technical difficulties.
The protective cover on the rear brake was broken, blocking the connection. As a result, Binder had to return to the pits. When he was sent out again, there was no longer enough time for a flying lap.
So it was 19th on the grid. The next problem occurred at the start. “I had an outstanding start. It was so good that the ride-height system did not deactivate until turn 11. We lost too much ground on the first lap.”
Honda rider Luca Marini was also affected by this. “Brad’s front starting system remained activated in the first sector. I hit him and dropped back to last place,” sighed the Italian. “I didn’t expect him to be so slow.”
Binder came in thirteenth in the sprint. Miller eleventh and Fernandez retired after a crash. So only Acosta scored championship points on Saturday. On Sunday, Miller caused a pile-up in turn 3 after the start. Fernandez retired again after a crash.
Binder saw the checkered flag in eighth place. “The start was better than on Saturday. In general, everything was a bit better, but I couldn’t attack from the start,” he said, describing his race. “In the end, I did the same lap time as at the beginning. That was the limit.”
After the race, Binder was also investigated for a possible offense of underinflating the front tire. “According to our data, we are okay, but apparently the sensor showed a few laps where we were not in the window, even though we were.” After checks by the officials, no time penalty was imposed on Binder.
