After the double-header in Austria, round 12 brought the Binder’s to the demanding course of Silverstone for a sold-out British Grand Prix. The typical cold English weather made it difficult for the teams this weekend, with bike set-up and tyre choices becoming very complicated for Silverstone’s tricky weave of 18 corners. Unlike the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone is a track that demands a constant flow between corners and not as much braking.
Darryn Binder
Darryn Binder was near the top of the timesheets throughout FP3, his best time of 2:11.415 placed him third in the session and overall, which secured him a spot in Q2. Unfortunately, Darryn only had one shot at a flying lap and admittedly his very poor strategy cost him a shot at the front row. He would have to start his Sunday morning from the sixth row of the grid, after posting the 16th fastest time.
Binder shot off the line like a rocket from 16th and quickly hustled his way through the field into tenth before the end of the first lap. Our fellow South African rode the socks off of his Moto3 bike, made it into the top-five one lap later and set about closing the gap to the riders out front.
Darryn pushed hard and joined the podium fight with ten laps remaining. When the chequered flag waved on the final lap, Darryn crossed the line seventh and increased his world championship points to 95— leaving the BritishGP sixth in the riders’ standings.
DB: “I had a good start to the race and I was able to get towards the front quite quickly. Unfortunately, the groups of riders were really small, which meant that one small mistake and you lose the slipstream. This happened to me and I was out of the group. I am really happy with how the opening laps went and I felt really fast, but I was just missing some speed. This is something that we need to improve. Right now my goal is to be in the top-five every race, that will make me happy, so hopefully, we can do this in the next few races.”
Brad Binder
Last rounds winner, Brad Binder, pushed hard in the Free Practice sessions on Friday and secured a Q2 spot with a top ten performance. Brad pushed to reach the highest possible grid positions during the quick dash on Saturday afternoon but finally rested 12th—leading the KTM charge in Sunday’s race.
Sundays 20-lapper around Silverstone’s eighteen corners and near-6 km circuit provided a technical test for both the riders and bike set-up. Bright, windy and chilly summer conditions created a stable environment for the race, as it would be a dry and grippy one.
Brad lined up on the starting blocks as the highest qualifying RC16 rider on the grid and began from 12th. This weekend the ‘Sunday Man’ weathered a slow start to the race before rapidly picking up his speed and hovering on the edge of the top ten. From this position, Binder became faster and more decisive with his overtaking making moves past Francesco Bagnaia, Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco.
Binder crossed the chequered flag in 6th and increased his world championship points to 108, placing him 6th overall with just 10 points behind Jack Miller in 5th.
BB: “Today was a solid day, all things considered. I had a tough start to the race and struggled a lot in the first few laps but as the race went on I got stronger and stronger. I’m really happy with the rhythm I managed to keep until the end. I want to say a huge thanks to the team; this weekend has not been easy for us and the guys have worked non-stop. We tried everything and the best bike we had all weekend is the bike we had for the race.”
There will now be a short break before the Binder’s action at the Gran Premio de Aragón next month (10-12 September).
