Brad Binder felt brain-dead helpless after his second track limits scene in MotoGP Dutch GP, as Aleix Espargaro was sad about the South African.
It was a deja vu scene for KTM’s Binder in MotoGP Dutch GP when the South African lost third for the second day in a row for track limits at Turn 8 on the final lap while defending his position on the podium. It was literally millimetres situation.
On Saturday, he lost third to Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo after the MotoGP sprint race and on Sunday, Binder lost it to Espargaro. The South African felt helpless in the situation, while the Spaniard felt bad for the KTM rider after the grand prix.
Here’s what they said:
Binder: “I think we did a good job today – until the last lap. And for that I’m extremely, extremely sorry to my team because I took away two podiums for them. They’ve done a great job, put in a huge effort and I’m sorry to mess it up like that. I didn’t know I’d even touched it. And then we went to turn 1 and Aleix was pointing at the green. Then I saw the TV and I was like, ‘How did I do that again?’ Anyway, it’s it is what it is. I touched it by maybe a couple of millimetres again. The rules are the rules. I feel like f**king brain-dead to do it again. I’ll try to make up for it in Silverstone.”
Espargaro: “I feel sorry for Brad because it is a stupid mistake. It cost him a podium. It’s very difficult to achieve a podium here but this is racing. I knew that I couldn’t overtake him and was very difficult to stay behind on the acceleration so the plan was to stay as close as possible and push him to the limit and force him to make a mistake. Finally, he made a mistake trying to accelerate early. I knew it and this is why I didn’t try in the last corner. I was outside of the corner so I really couldn’t avoid Luca.
“He picked up the bike and I don’t know why. We had a small contact but I didn’t know that I broke the wing. The first part of the race was very difficult because every time in corner six and corner 12, when I threw the bike in I had a lot of shaking. It was really difficult for me to maintain the speed there. I was really strong there during the weekend so I lost a lot there. But I didn’t lose the rhythm. It was a bit frustrating and difficult to keep the pace. But I’m happy to close out the race on the podium.”
Here’s what happened to Brad Binder: https://www.motogp.com/en/videos/2023/06/25/turn-8-strikes-twice-as-binder-loses-p3-again/459249
Here’s how MotoGP Dutch GP panned out