KTM’s Blood Binder says his bike had technical issues during the San Marino Moto Gupsprint as he had been having all weekend.
After struggling with a difficult qualifying round at Misano on Saturday morning, the KTM rider was forced to work his way from 15th on the grid.
The blood binder made little progress from here after nine laps of running when it stopped on the side of the circuit.
He says he’s been battling problems all weekend with the RC16’s engine braking not working properly on one of the bikes.
However, the fact that he can use the new engine for Sunday’s San Marino Grand Prix is something he considers positive.
“Well, there’s not much to say,” he told the media.
“Unfortunately, there was technical issues in the race and the bike stopped.
“But all weekend I mean one bike had a lot of engine braking and one was more or less normal.
“And this weekend, I had to jump between the two the whole time because there were all the issues.
“So it was a bit difficult to switch over. Then in the races, the engine brakes built the lap with laps, and we got more and more, then stopped.
“On the other hand, that’s probably a good thing because you can put a new engine in right now and things can go back to normal.
“But so far it’s been a truly, really challenging weekend, but it’s life and let’s look at tomorrow.
“To be honest, I wasn’t strong at all, but again, I was open the gas and didn’t feel much strength.
“And when I was braking, I was locking the rear like hell, so it’s hard to say. Before it stopped, I dropped the engine brakes all the way down as I went sideways every corner, so I thought I had gotten more and went completely in the wrong direction.
“And that stopped. So it was a challenging race.”
In FP2 before qualifying, Binder’s RC16 suffered from chain issues. He says he contributed to the misery of Sprint.
“I did a bit of mechanic work on the chain next to the truck, then got it back and got my bike back,” he said.
“But unfortunately, when the chain jumps off, the swingarm breaks. So the bike was ok and what was fine was placed on the side.”