Brilliant Brad jumps 10 places

A BRILLIANT start from Brad Binder, in the third race of the MotoGP season, propelled the Red Bull KTM rider to a top five finish at the Portuguese GP yesterday.

Binder, starting from 15th on the grid, jumped off the line with impressive aggression, carving his way to seventh in the field. To the surprise of all, Binder’s KTM eked out an extra second on his ride’s projected time, and it pushed him into sixth for a couple of laps before Francesco Bagnaia of Italy seized the position from him to eventually finish second.

With seven laps to go, Alex Rins was forced into error, and crashed out of the race while chasing down Fabio Quartararo - the eventual winner - and a lap later Johann Zarco endured a similar fate, lifting Binder to fifth.

With the race coming to a close, Binder came within touching distance to push for an unlikely podium but had to settle for his best finish of the season thus far.

Binder now has 10 points in the world riders’ championship, lifting himself to 12th. Teammate Miguel Oliveira, who won this GP last year, finished 16th.

Meanwhile, in Moto3, Pedro Acosta continued his rise with a second victory in as many races. The 16-year-old has now finished on the podium in all three races, and yesterday secured his triumph by overtaking Dennis Foggia of Italy on the final lap.

It was a race to forget for Darryn Binder, who was penalised for dangerous riding in qualifying and started from the pitlane after previously securing eighth spot. The Petronas Sprinta Racing rider never recovered from the setback.

A handful of crashes in front of him did help the younger Binder to finish 20th, but the GP will be remembered as a disappointing one for the 23-year-old as he finished 33 seconds behind the winner. Binder remains third in the standings. The next race is the Spanish GP on May 2.