Red Bull Ring, Austria – With the weight of a home race on his shoulders, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Brad Binder produced a determined performance to climb from 12th on the grid to fifth at the Austrian GP, securing more points for the team and marking his return to the top five.
It was a less successful afternoon for teammate Jack Miller, however. Having taken fifth in Saturday’s sprint and after making a promising start to Sunday’s race, the Australian suffered a crash on lap 11 that saw him drop to 19th. Wildcard entrant Pol Espargaro, making his second appearance of the season on the KTM RC16, finished 11th from ninth.
An expectant orange crowd was in full voice at the Red Bull Ring after heavy showers and thunderstorms the night before cleared the way for warm and dry conditions on race day. Binder and Miller both came out of the blocks well, with Binder quickly making up six places and eventually overtaking his teammate, who was nursing his rear tyre.
Disaster then struck for Miller on lap 11 when he lost his front on the Turn 2 chicane and crashed out, losing 20 seconds by the time he managed to remount. The #43 rider was unable to recover and crossed the finish line in 19th.
For Binder, it was somewhat of a return to form following his retirement at Silverstone two weeks ago. The South African had finished inside the top 10 in every race leading up to the British GP and will hope this latest performance is a sign of what’s to come for the rest of 2024.
Reflecting on his fifth-placed finish in Spielberg, Binder said: “I can’t ask for more from today. I gave my best from beginning to the end and tried to not make mistakes and set my own rhythm without murdering the tyre. We managed to get home with it in quite a good state.
“Top five – I wanted a bit more for the home grand prix, but we figured some good things out this weekend so let’s keep building from here. I think we’ll be OK in Aragon and I’m hoping for a good result.”
As for Miller, the 29-year-old was understandably disappointed with the result, commenting afterwards: “Not the way we wanted the day to go, but I got away with a better start and we went with a softer map today.
“I was nursing the bike at the beginning and I was sacrificing a little bit, but I was comfortable. The crash was a small mistake. I came in a little hot and I don’t know if I hit a bump, but it started bouncing and put me down.
“After that I put in a solid race and a lot of good laps considering. So, it was a ‘what could have been…’ because the pace was good. I just wish I could have been with the boys I was fighting with.”
Next up on the 2024 MotoGP calendar is the Aragon GP at the MotorLand Aragón on August 30th – September 1st.