Jerez, Spain - South Africans watched with bated breath as Brad Binder made his MotoGP debut on Sunday, but the television coverage left them in the dark about how he ended up at the back of the field after starting 11th on the grid and making a promising start to the race.
However, his KTM Red Bull team revealed after the race that the South African made a mistake under braking on lap seven, which saw him run off the track. This relegated him to the back of the back of the field, although he did manage to work his way back to 13th position after putting in some blistering laps.
“In general, it is not too bad. I’m super-happy with the way the bike is. I need to say sorry to my team because today we could have done a good job and taken a good result but at the end of the day we live and we learn,” Binder said after the race.
“I made a mistake and I won’t do it again. I knew I could be there in that group with the guys, I didn’t know I would be able to sit there quite comfortably. That was a bit of a shock for sure. I’m really happy that my training in the off-season worked because this is a whole new ball game.
“I must be happy. The whole package is working so well so I must say thanks to KTM for all their work and I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do in the next races. Let’s keep our heads up and keep this work ethic going,” he concluded.
The race was won by Petronas Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo, who rode to his maiden MotoGP victory in an eventful race that saw defending champion Marc Marquez crash his Honda with just four laps to go. Quartararo was already in the lead at this point, as Marquez was still working his way through the field after an earlier mishap.