Red Bull KTM Factory Racing depart the Grande Premio TISSOT de Portugal with well-earned top seven positions for Brad Binder and Jack Miller respectively as MotoGP scorched into life under glaring Algarve sunshine and watched by a large noisy crowd at the International Circuit. In the other classes KTM machinery celebrated victory in both Moto3™ and Moto2™.
The Portuguese Grand Prix got down to business once more with the full-length 25 lap distance on Sunday. The Red Bull KTM racers started from 5th and 15th positions on the grid.
Jack Miller is still new to the team and had logged less than eight full days on his race-bike before lining up for the second time for round one. The Australian extended his education in finding the precious tenths on the ragged edge by competing for the top five and then taking part in a five-rider slugfest for 4th. One of those rivals was Brad Binder. The South African somehow ignored neck and shoulder pain to enter his most exciting phase of the weekend. Less than one second covered the quintet at the flag and Brad was just ahead of Jack in 6th. The duo swap positions in the early championship rankings however: Miller is 5th and Binder 8th.
The team quickly disassembled the RC16s post-race for the freight and the long trip across the Atlantic to Argentina, in time for round two next weekend.
Brad Binder, 6th: “Today was pretty good. It has been a hard weekend because it was very tough for me to get comfortable on the bike. I was suffering a lot but today my team made a big step forward with my RC16 and I was much more confident in the end. The last five laps were really demanding physically but the step forwards we made was very satisfying and I’m hoping for more in Argentina. I just need to figure out how to be 100% fit there.”
Jack Miller, 7th: “I was pushing a lot towards the end and into unknown territory with the tires. The bike was really stable but I made a small mistake with my gearing and it was hectic there. I was trying everything I could to make the pass and get it done but it was impossible. We learnt a lot about our strengths and weaknesses today. The tire conservation was really good as was the feedback I was getting from the bike through the duration. I’m happy with where we are and I know we can work to be stronger. We are having fun building this project.”
Francesco Guidotti, Red Bull KTM Team Manager: “We had a very busy winter test and made a lot more work than we expected. We had some issues and some curiosity to go deeper and deeper with the technical package and we waited until the last moment to put everything together. The riders were only able to push at the first race and, honestly, it was a little bit late but it was not a big problem. Jack has a lot of experience and as soon as he feels good then he is ready to push and since Friday he was on the charge! Today he did great, to match what he did on Friday and Saturday. He still needs to understand the full possibilities of the bike’s behavior but he is ready to go. Brad was struggling with his neck but the bike setup was much more in the direction he wanted. He had a super-good race. Yesterday his distance to the winner was eight seconds and today it was the same but at double the laps, so this was significant. A massive improvement. Let’s go to Argentina. A blank page again, and we’ll see.”
- From KTM Factory Racing
