Finishing 11th place in MotoGP Sprint was Brad Binder’s “undisgusting” pace, but the South Africans found him “too slow.”
Binder has not scored points in the sprint since finishing eighth in Thailand, but in Saturday’s 12-lap race at Geres, he was the third best KTM behind Maverick Vinares for the seventh and Pedro A Costa in 10th place.
The 2016 Moto3 world champion, who won the 2022 edition of MotoGP Sprint at Jerez, said his sprint performance fell below his expectations.
“I was hoping for more from today’s sprint,” Binder said, telling motogp.com after the sprint.
“I felt the conditions were much more tricky, especially than the situation this morning, and it was a greasier thing on the track and certainly a lot more tricky.
“I tried my best to keep track of everything, and it was really tricky.
“I felt like I didn’t dislike the pace. I was very consistent, but it was too slow.
“So we definitely have to find a little extra pace and see what we can do before tomorrow.”
The aforementioned Acosta, a Red Bull KTM Factory Racing teammate from Binder, returned to the 2024-spec RC16 this weekend, making it just 0.6 seconds down the road.
The Spanish rider crashed at FP2 in the final corner on Saturday morning, finishing 10th in the sprint, the slowest of the 12 riders in the second quarter.
“It’s not easy to see how things were expecting you, how you plan,” Acosta said.
“The way is to keep pushing and keeping the work going, and this brings us up.
“Yesterday wasn’t bad and I was OK at a pace this morning, but as things change, a lot of unexpected things happen.
“You need to understand how to find a way.”