’So far, so good’ - Brad and Darryn Binder make marked improvement in Indonesia

Johannesburg - There was a marked improvement for the Binder Brothers at the newly constructed Pertamina Mandalika Circuit this past weekend in the second and final pre-season testing session for this year’s MotoGP campaign.

After a shakedown in Sepang a week before, Red Bull KTM and Brad Binder now seem to be putting together a package that will compete more consistently with the front-runners in 2022. By the end of day 3 of the test on Sunday in Indonesia, Binder was placed 11th overall, 0.1 seconds faster than his teammate, Miguel Oliveira of Portugal in 15th.

Moreover, Binder was only 0.5 second behind Honda’s Pol Espargaro; and if pre-season is an early indicator, the opening rounds of the MotoGP calendar are going to be tightly contested with Honda the slight favourites. Only a 0.8s split separates 21 riders heading towards the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix early next month, as revealed by the latest telemetry this past weekend.

Brad completed 68 laps in Indonesia, setting his fastest time of 1.31.574s on a barely completed track that would have had little grip or traction, and which will no doubt be much improved when the riders return there for the second round of the season in mid-March.

After the completion of the test on Sunday afternoon, the 26-year-old Brad revealed his belief that the team was in a much better place when compared to last year at the same time.

Said Brad: “So far, so good.

“The bike is working better and I’m working better," he continued. "We have found some good things and we have improved our package from last year. We still need to work to increase that forward step that we’ve made over these five days in Malaysia and Indonesia.

“Now we can go home, evaluate and, hopefully, come back