“He was long gone!”: Binder looks at positives after sprint second

Brad Binder had secured fifth on the grid in the earlier qualifying session but was soon working to move forward, finishing the Thailand sprint race second to Jorge Martin.

Before the Red Bull KTM Factory rider could even think about the leader he needed to catch and pass Luca Marini, who slotted into second behind Jorge Martin after securing the same space on the grid.

The South African made quick work to get to Marini before the Italian made himself as hard to pass as possible:

“Fifth place was alright - I would have like to be further forward, but never complain about a second row for me. The race was pretty good, got a decent start. Got past Aleix early on, I just struggled to get past Luca a little bit, he’s really good on the brakes so I had to work hard to get past.

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From there there was only one rider betwwn the #33 and victory, but unfortunatley Martinwas already enjoying a huge gap after a massive effort to get ahead off the line coupled with the battle to set to second for Binder:

“But once I did I set my sights on Jorge and tried to chase him down - but he was long gone!

I kept pushing ‘til the end and happy to come home with the second place”.

Asked if he could have got by sooner could he have caught Martin sooner if he had not got stuck trying to pass Marini for so long, Binder was pragmatic, admitting he felt he had something more over those initial laps but conceding that Martin’s consistent pace would have probably still been an obstacle to victory:

“I think he was cruising at the end already! So it’s hard to say. The first lap or the first three to four laps I felt like I had something extra, I kept trying but it wasn’t really working”.

Binder feels the main race in Thailand tomorrow could go differently and that tyre choice will be key:

“I think tyre choice tomorrow will be crucial and most importantly getting it to the end I think from what you have seen everybody’s tyre consumption… is huge, any one who can to the end with a little bit extra is going to have an advantage.

I had a pretty decent start today, wasn’t great but I think we can get a better one tomorrow”.