Tough outing for Brad Binder at the Qatar GP

The Red Bull KTM factory rider’s tough season continued, leaving Lusail International Circuit with lingering concerns after yet another challenging weekend for the team.

Binder had to graft hard following his 18th-place qualification, and after missing out on points in Saturday's sprint with a 14th-place finish, his RC16 machine continued to be out of sorts even though he improved from 18th to end in 13th place in Sunday's main race, helping himself to a handy three points.

Pedro Acosta (24) has now overtaken the South African rider (22) in the drivers championship after having collected a solid eight points this past weekend, and speaking about the race, Binder said he faced multiple challenges throughout the weekend.

“Not much better today. It was tough. Binder said after the race. We tried to change some set-up in the race and it felt quite decent until about ten laps when I started to have massive understeer and I was spinning a lot on the tire.

“With five laps to go the rear was toasted. It was a really tricky weekend and my guys tried so many things to help me be comfortable.”

The team will take a lot of confidence from Maverick Vinales’ improved showing on Sunday as he kept pace with the front runners to end the race in second place.

The 30-year-old's joy was short-lived, however, as a 16-second penalty for tire infringement reduced his second-place finish to 14th, but Binder believes that the team can take some learnings from the Tech3 team as they look for a strong return in Spain.

“It was super-good to see Maverick do so well and it will be good for us to see what he did differently and how we can learn from it.”

Team Manager Aki Ajo also added that the team has taken some positive steps despite some of their setbacks, and they will deliver the expected performances heading into the Spanish Grand Prix.

“It has been a hard start to the season but I have to say that in Austin and also in Qatar we have taken steps forward." Ajo told the KTM website.

“It is important to take a positive result to keep the belief and the full motivation because in racing there are ups and downs. We saw this weekend that we are moving forward and I think when we are back in Europe we can do it again.”