Following a strenuous testing weekend two weeks ago, Round One showed strong signs that the team are moving in the right direction. Saturday featured MotoGP’s first ever 12-lap sprint race with half points being awarded and saw a lively ride from Miller to finish 4th. This was the first time we were able to see what Mobil 1 could do in the bike and it didn’t disappoint helping Red Bull KTM Factory fight for places at the front of the field.
We went racing again on Sunday with Jack Miller starting from 5th and Brad Binder in 15th. This time for 25 laps round the Grande Premio TISSOT de Portugal circuit.
On his debut weekend, Jack Miller continued to build his familiarity with his new race-bike and found the precious tenths needed to compete for the top spots. Brad Binder somehow battled through neck and back pains to launch himself through the chasing pack up.
At the chequered flag Brad Binder finished just ahead of his teammate, Jack Miller, ending up in 6th and 7th respectively. The duo swapped positions in the championship rankings from Saturday, now with Miller sitting in 5th and Binder in 8th.
Brad Binder, 6th: “Today was pretty good. It has been a hard weekend because it was very tough for me to get comfortable on the bike. I was suffering a lot but today my team made a big step forward with my RC16 and I was much more confident in the end.”
“The last five laps were really demanding physically but the step forwards we made was very satisfying and I’m hoping for more in Argentina. I just need to figure out how to be 100% fit there.”
Jack Miller, 7th: “I was pushing a lot towards the end and into unknown territory with the tires. The bike was really stable but I made a small mistake with my gearing and it was hectic there. I was trying everything I could to make the pass and get it done but it was impossible. We learnt a lot about our strengths and weaknesses today.”
The tire conservation was really good as was the feedback I was getting from the bike through the duration. I’m happy with where we are and I know we can work to be stronger. We are having fun building this project.”
Francesco Guidotti, Red Bull KTM Team Manager, had this to say following the race: “We had a very busy winter test and made a lot more work than we expected. We had some issues and some curiosity to go deeper and deeper with the technical package and we waited until the last moment to put everything together. The riders were only able to push at the first race and, honestly, it was a little bit late but it was not a big problem. Jack has a lot of experience and as soon as he feels good then he is ready to push and since Friday he was on the charge! Today he did great, to match what he did on Friday and Saturday.” He still needs to understand the full possibilities of the bike’s behavior but he is ready to go. Brad was struggling with his neck but the bike setup was much more in the direction he wanted. He had a super-good race. Yesterday his distance to the winner was eight seconds and today it was the same but at double the laps, so this was significant.” A massive improvement. Let’s go to Argentina. A blank page again, and we’ll see.”