Binder and KTM dominate to secure emphatic first MotoGP win at Brno

Brad Binder took a sensational first MotoGP victory for him and his KTM outfit after passing Franco Morbidelli late on in the Czech grand prix at Brno.  

Binder-who took the start from seventh- made a strong start to establish himself in the top five early on as he managed to pass team-mate Pol Espargaro and pole-man Johann Zarco to get into third.

He then pressured second-placed Fabio Quartararo across the opening stanza of the contest, eventually making the move with a late dive down the inside of the Petronas SRT Yamaha at Turn 3 just prior to mid-distance.

The South African then rode an inspired second half to close down Morbidelli’s 1.5 second lead until he was staring at the rear wheel of the M1 a few tours later, at times taking nearly half-a-second a lap as the Italian began to struggle for grip with his soft rear tyre.

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Not keen on hanging around, Binder dived past Morbidelli into a lead he would never relinquish at Turn 10, immediately establishing a clear advantage over the Yamaha.

Binder kept building upon his gap across the remainder of the 21 lap encounter, ultimately taking the chequered flag in dominant fashion by a crushing 5.1 seconds ahead of Morbidelli, who bagged his first ever premier class rostrum in the process.

Binder becomes the first ever South African to win a premier class race, the ’16 Moto3 world champion achieving the feat in only his third ever MotoGP start.

Johann Zarco meanwhile completed the podium in an excellent third to take Avintia’s first ever podium finish despite having to take a long-lap penalty after colliding with the second factory KTM of Pol Espargaro.

Zarco attempted to dive past the Spaniard at Turn 1 in a bid to snatch fourth as the KTM ran slightly wide, the Frenchman getting clearly underneath Espargaro.

Espargaro was unable to see Zarco though and closed back in towards the apex, clipping the Ducati and going down into the gravel on the outside of the bend.

Zarco managed to build enough of a gap to retain third ahead of Quartararo-who he had passed just a couple laps previously-but came under pressure for his position by the charging Alex Rins over the final tour, just hanging on by 0.139 ahead of the Suzuki.

Valentino Rossi utilised the extra grip afforded to him by his medium rear tyre in the closing stages to bag fifth for Yamaha, while Miguel Oliveira bumped the struggling Quartararo even further to snatch sixth-the double Jerez victor eventually coming home seventh.

Takaaki Nakagami upheld Honda’s honour as he took eighth for LCR, while Jack Miller completed a poor race for the Ducati GP20’s in ninth ahead of Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia.

Andrea Dovizioso could only recover to 11^th after starting 18^th, just clear of team-mate Danilo Petrucci in 12^th.

Maverick Vinales struggled for pace across the full race distance, just remaining in the top ten for the bulk of the contest before being relegated all the way to 14^th by the end.

Alex Marquez went some way to partly salvaging a tough weekend for the factory Honda squad as he scored a solitary point for 15^th, with Stefan Bradl taking 18^th in his first appearance as Marc Marquez’s replacement.

Joan Mir meanwhile lost any chance of showing the strong pace he showed during practice after being wiped out by Iker Lecuona’s Tech 3 KTM.

Lecuona attempted to dive past the Suzuki into Turn 13 early on, but tucked the front of his RC16 over the bumps-wiping out the unfortunate Mir in the process.

Brno, Sunday, August 09, 2020