Binder takes charge as wild weather disrupts Australia MotoGP

PHILIP ISLAND: KTM’s Brad Binder produced a scorching late lap to clock the fastest time Friday for a disrupted Australian MotoGP, as championship leader Francesco Bagnaia finished outside the top 10.

The South African blitzed the waterfront Phillip Island circuit with a best lap of one minute and 27.943 seconds.

He did so in fine conditions, but the weather is due to progressively worsen and, with high winds forecast, race organizers brought the 27-lap grand prix forward a day to Saturday to give it the best chance of being run.

The 13-lap sprint was pushed back 24 hours to Sunday, if it is safe to race.

“Safety is the most important factor, for the riders and of course the fans and everyone involved in the event,” said Carlos Ezpeleta, chief sporting officer of MotoGP’s commercial rights holder Dorna, who called it “a unanimous decision.”

Binder’s red-hot time was just shy of the 1:27.767 record Spain’s Jorge Martin set last year on his way to pole.

“It was a really good day from the first exit (from the pits) and the bike worked really well,” said Binder. “Most important is we’re through to Q2 tomorrow and we’ll see how we end up.”

World title contender Martin was fourth fastest on his Pramac Ducati, 0.279 behind, with Binder’s fellow factory KTM rider Jack Miller second and Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales third.

But it was a miserable day for Bagnaia, who struggled for pace and could only finish 11th, 0.699 adrift, meaning he will need to fight his way through Q1 on Saturday.

The top 10 times from Friday’s second practice automatically qualified for Q2 and will be joined by the fastest two riders from Q1 to determine the first five rows of the grid both for Sunday’s main event and Saturday’s sprint.

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