Brilliant Brad jumps 10 places, fights for podium

A BRILLIANT start by 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.

The South African, starting from 15th place 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 an error and crashed out while chasing down eventual winner Fabio Quartararo, 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 of pushing for an unlikely podium finish, but had to settle for his best placing of the season thus far.

Binder now has 10 points in the world 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.

In doing so, Acosta became the fifth rider in the 73-year GP history to have started his career with a trio of podiums, and is also now the youngest rider to do so.

However, it was a race to forget for Darryn Binder, who was penalised by the stewards for dangerous driving during qualifying and started from the pitlane after previously securing eighth spot.

The Petronas Sprinta Racing rider never recovered from the setback and failed to make any real impact on the field.

He struggled to find rhythm and pace, and could not fight his way up through the field.

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 remained third in the standings, equal on 36 points with Niccolo Antonelli of Italy, but is now 34 points behind Spaniard Acosta and three behind second-placed Jaume Masia of Spain.

The next race is the Spanish GP on May 2.