The Binderlicious Brad

MotoGP moved to Brno, in the Czech Republic, for another round of motorcycle racing

Report:

Zal Cursetji

The riders were in Brno for the third round of the 2020 MotoGP world Championship. would the frenchman, fabio Quartararo on the Petronas Yamaha srt bike, continue his dominance? or would the factory Yamaha boys have a say? the ducati team had been poor, but their satellite riders told a different story. KtM had had promising moments recently with promising riders in their team. then we had Moto2 and Moto3, both in their fourth round of racing, and already had stories building. what would the Czech republic have in store for us? the story soon unfolded.

MotoGP

Brno proved to be a tough place for the factory teams, with satellite riders achieving better results during qualifying. the front row consisted of two Petronas Yamaha srt bikes and a ducati. the ducati, however, was a 2019 version ridden by Johann Zarco of esponsorama racing who took pole position at Brno, much to the world’s surprise. second and third were the Petronas Yamaha srt boys, fabio and his teammate franco Morbidelli.

Post the flashing red lights, the start saw a few surprises. Zarco took the lead and fought initially to keep it against Morbidelli. however, is proved short-lived and soon the italian passed the frenchman and started to open up a small lead.

the race then saw a few riders fall down the order as well as a few climb up at breakneck speed. the losers here were fabio Quartararo, who just could not seem to find a good rhythm, but his failing wasn’t as bad as that of another star, Monster energy

Yamaha MotoGP rider Maverick Viñales. the climbers were Maverick’s teammate and legend, Valentino rossi, on the second Monster energy Yamaha MotoGP bike, the two red Bull KtM factory racing bikes of Brad Binder and Pol espargaro, and the injured Alex rins on his team suzuki ecstar bike.

By mid-race, it was clear that the pace of the two KtM riders was faster than all those in front and soon Binder and espargaro were in podium position of second and third respectively. however, Pol mistimed a corner and ran slightly wide, leaving a little room for the brilliantly performing Johann Zarco. Zarco made his move but Pol cut back without realising Zarco on his right: a collision followed with espargaro sliding towards race retirement and quite furious. Zarco would receive a long-lap penalty for the incident.

Brad Binder on the remaining KtM would not be deterred, though, and continued his pursuit of Morbidelli. soon the south African KtM rookie was on the rear wheel of the italian race leader. Binder made his way past franco and finished the race to take his first MotoGP victory in his third ever race in the championship. An amazing feat by the promising future of the sport.

Morbidelli managed to keep second position, earning, in turn, his best finish in MotoGP. Zarco would not have it so easy, though, as the frenchman had a long-lap penalty and was being hunted down by two riders. in fifth place was Vale who rode tremendously well, bettering his teammate Maverick Viñales, but it was the fourth-place rider who, similar to Binder and Zarco, was a surprise at Brno: Alex rins. Alex rins is still recovering from injury and yet managed to ride an amazing race, finishing fourth. the suzuki riding spaniard put up a great fight to catch

MotoGP

POS. RIDER

TIMING

Moto2

Moto2 was quite a clear-cut race so far as podiums positions went. enea Bastianini on the italtrans racing team bike got off to a great start, taking the lead from the rest of the pack. he was followed by the Brit, sam Lowes, on the Marc Vds bike and the American, Joe roberts, on the tennor American racing motorcycle. the three riders opened up a healthy gap from the rest of the grid as well as a gap between one another. Bastianini crossed the line after leading from the get-go, achieving back to back Moto2 wins.