Brad takes points in Misano Sprint Race, but still concerned by lack of speed

45 years after Misano first hosted a Grand Prix, the FIM World Championship arrived at the flat facility close to Rimini for the second event on Italian soil this term. MotoGP reached lap record pace once again on Friday with less than one second dividing the 15 fastest riders. In a bright and mild climate, Pedro Acosta was again the reference on the KTM RC16 and defied a Turn 1 crash on Friday to sit 6th after Practice. The Spaniard was joined by countryman Pol Espargaro (filling-in for Maverick Viñales for the third race in a row) in Q2. Enea Bastianini missed out on Q2 by a hundredth of a second and Brad Binder also went into Q1.

An early rainstorm on Saturday meant the track was drying just in time for Free Practice 2 and was back to blue skies for qualification. Acosta was 0.6 from Pole Position after Q2 and occupied the first slot on the third row of the grid in P7. Espargaro rested with a very decent P12. Bastianini moved to P16 and Binder was P19 after Q1.

The Sprint rounded Misano for 13 laps. Brad powered up to mid-pack and entered a KTM scrap with Bastianini and Espargaro. The trio crossed the finish line together – less than a second covering the three KTM RC16s – and with Brad in P14, followed by Enea in P15 and Pol in P16.

The 27-lap MotoGP contest starts at the customary time of 14.00 CEST.

Brad Binder
19th in qualification, 14th in the Sprint:

“The Sprint went better than the beginning of the day but I’m missing some serious speed in the third sector. A couple more tenths of a second there will change our weekend. That’s my homework tonight; if we can figure out then we’ll be much better tomorrow.”