It was on a high note that Brad Binder said goodbye to Qatar for now, stating that these two days of testing were much better than last year’s. The KTM RC16 is working very well, he assured.
The Red Bull KTM Factory Racing rider finished the day with the ninth fastest time and considered this test to have gone very well, thus analyzing the day: ‘Today was very cool. We started a little later than planned, I had some problems in the beginning and lost a lot of time this morning, then I had to push everything in, but other than that, it was very good. I was able to understand some things, try more or less different setups, and in the end, I did a race simulation and ran out of fuel on the other side of the track, thank you very much to the Pramac team for giving me a little push and then… yes, I came back and did a time trial at the end’.
He didn’t set the fastest time because even when he was attacking, there were yellow flags: ‘I had two yellow flags on my attacking laps, which was very good, but other than that, I’m feeling pretty good. I think our bike is working very well. I think we’ve made a step forward from last season, I’m happy with how the bike is performing. Let’s see where we are at the end of the race weekend’.
Asked about the race simulation and if he felt that the bike was consistent, the South African added: ‘There was a little crash, but nothing special, much better than last year’s race and that’s the most important thing’.
When asked if this was his best pre-season so far, he responded ironically: ‘Last year I wanted to shoot myself, so this one was a little better’.
