OBAKENG MELETSE
Red Bull KTM rider Brad Binder grafted hard to keep up with the front runners, and he left the Japanese GP with the advantage in the run for the fifth-place finish in the world riders’ championship standings.
With Ducati having a field day with four riders occupying the Top 4 positions, the midfield riders were left to collect the rest of the scraps.
🗣️ "It was really difficult to keep clean and consistent. In general everything else was quite OK. Not the race I wanted…but it was all we had today." @BradBinder_33
📰 | https://t.co/jxt3aDgx0X pic.twitter.com/LSqaR9cl8j
Heading into the weekend, Binder was trailing rookie Pedro Acosta by eight points. Despite missing out on potential points in the sprint race due to a technical issue, Binder was the sole beneficiary of any points this weekend, as he walked away with 10 after his sixth-place finish.
Acosta’s crashes in both the sprint and on Sunday’s main race, handed Binder the advantage, but things could have turned out differently had the KTM factory rider crossed the finish line on both occasions.
“Not the race I wanted, but it was all we had (on Sunday).” Binder told the KTM website, after the event. “In the beginning, when I wanted to push on with the boys, I kept losing the front, but after a while, everything felt okay for a section of the race.
"Then, with six-seven laps to go, the rear tyre went, and it was spinning all the way down the straight. It was really difficult to keep clean and consistent. In general, everything else was quite okay.”
Both riders have exchanged blows in a bout set to continue for the remaining four races on the calendar, and with fourth-placed Marc Marquez in the clear with a 128 point gap, it is a two-horse race that could potentially also have a twist.
Binder and Acosta are now separated by two points and sitting quietly in seventh place, but still with an outside shot of pulling out an upset, is Aprillia’s Maverick Vinales on 163 points. The next stop will be at the Phillip Island in Australia in a fortnight.