Motegi, Japan – For Round 16 of the 2024 Season, MotoGP arrived in Japan to find a dark and cloudy setting at the Motegi circuit.
The final leg of a triple header, which took MotoGP to Italy and Indonesia before Sunday’s fast and lively session around the 4.8km track with weather conditions threatening the asphalt.
Saturday’s Sprint Race was one to forget for Binder dropping out of the race after running with the leading group in the early stages. Miller, meanwhile, took an 8th placed finish. For Sunday’s feature race Binder and Miller started in 5th and 14th respectively.
As the light went out, both riders had excellent take offs with Binder charging up into 3rd and Miller rocketed nine places up the field to 5th position. The weather remained dry as the Red Bull KTM riders settled into the running of the race as they looked to manage their tyres and the laps swifted counted down one after another.
Binder rode a fairly lonely race, not risking his tyres to keep up with the leading pack. Only until later in the race when he dropped to 6th for his final classification. His partner, Miller, had the same orders – manage the tyres and bring it home – and he did. Millers early launch meant he was well ahead of his starting grid position and came home in 10th.
Following his solo ride, Brad Binder said “In the beginning when I wanted to push on with the boys I kept losing the front but after a while everything felt OK for a section of the race.
“Then with six-seven laps to go the rear tire went and it was spinning all the way down the straight. It was really difficult to keep clean and consistent. In general everything else was quite OK. Not the race I wanted…but it was all we had today.”
After a fantastic start and battling to a top 10 finish, Jack Miller said: “We made a bit more headway with the bike and I made the best pace I could. I can generally get away good and hit my marks. I was in the right spot at the right time. It was fun to be there at the beginning.
“We’re struggling a bit with mid-corner and corner exit speed. The front is stable and it stayed solid all race but we still have some work to do. This hard-braking track was good for us. We’ll come back next week and give it a crack at the Island and see how it goes there.”
Red Bull KTM Factory Racing will be back in action after a week’s break at Phillip Island to kick off another tripleheader starting in Australia on the 20th of October.