Japanese MotoGP: Binder: Why Aragon worked for KTM, but Motegi might be ‘challenging’

A stunning opening lap at Aragon laid the foundation for Brad Binder to claim KTM’s best dry result since the Qatar season opener. But the corner characteristics of this weekend’s Motegi round might make things trickier.
Brad Binder, MotoGP race, Aragon MotoGP, 18 September
Brad Binder, MotoGP race, Aragon MotoGP, 18 September

Binder not only rocketed f🌠rom tenth on the grid to an early second place last Sunday but had the pace to hold a podium position right until the penultima🐓te lap, when he was finally passed by Aleix Espargaro.

“The layout suited our bike, 🐷there wasn’t too much hard braking stuff, just keeping speed and flowing,” Binder explained on the eve of this weekend’s Japanese Gran♐d Prix.

“That’s one thing that worked better for us th🎃is season. It used to be our weakest point, now it’s our strongest. Now we need to improve in the small corners.

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“Honestly, this season we’ve been having 🦩a lot more issues stopping the bike and driving off slow corners,” explained the South African.

“We just seem to get locking of the fr꧟ont really early in braking zones. We don’t ꦿhave the deceleration that others have.

“They can brake later than us at this stage. Also we don’t quite turn fast enough in these slow corners. we spend too much time in lean angle and do💟n’t go down the straight close enough.

“So I think t𝕴here are a couple of points [at Motegi] that might be tricky. When the track starts to be 🐭more round and flowing, that’s where it works well. Some parts here will be good for us, others more challenging.”

Gardner: I don’t know how Brad does it

Rookie 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Remy Gardner, riding the Tech🔜3 KTM, said he was in awe🎀 of Binder’s performance at Aragon.

“I don’t know how Brad does it to be honest,” Gardner said. “I mean he’s got a really different riding style to all of us that’s for sure. He makes all the time up on entry, on brakes, having the bike sideways 🌸on entry with a really different set-up as well.

“We’ve tried🌼 that. I can’t make it work and I don’t think many other guys can. But it seems like it’s the only way to make the KTM go fast at the moment. I mean there will be tracks where our style will suit better that’s for sure.

“But💮 Aragon, I have no idea 𝔉how he did that to be honest.”

Oliveira: It’s the slow corners where we’re struggling

Binder’s factory team-mate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Miguel Oliveira, the only KTM rider with prior MotoGP experience at Motegi, agreed it’🦋s slow corners where the RC16 suffers at the moment.

“Right now it’s thꦰe [slow] corners where we’re struggling the most, not in terms of pure acceleration, but the stopping and turning at𒅌 this initial moment, it’s a thing where we suffer more,” Oliveira said.

“But sometimes in a different layout of a track, this is something we can’t see so much. I’m quite confident we can perform well🃏 here. It’s really hard on the brakes so we have to sort the brakes first and make sure everything works over distance.

“It's also one of the tracks where we’ll use the ride-height device the most. We’ve had no issues and it looks li🀅ke we can use it as many times as we’d like during the lap.

“The weat𒆙h💧er doesn’t look fantastic, so we’ll be looking to make the most of tomorrow’s practice.”

Oliveira took 🐼KTM’s only victory of the season so far in the wet Mandalika rou𝕴nd.

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