Brad Binder has revealed that a clutch failure forced him off the grid at the start of the twice-red-flagged MotoGP Catalan Grand Prix, capping a weekend of reliability woes for KTM. The South African, originally set to launch from eighth, was forced to swap to his spare bike after his RC16’s clutch burnt out during the sighting lap.
“When I arrived to the grid I went to shift down gears and unfortunately my clutch had burnt,” Binder explained. “I had no clutch going into my grid slot. I couldn’t put the bike in neutral and I couldn’t stop. So, luckily, the guys from IRTA were quick with the gate so I could cut right. After that, came in, grabbed my spare bike and went out again.”
Despite rejoining the race at the back of the pack, Binder ultimately finished ninth on the road and was promoted to seventh due to post-race penalties. “Chaos weekend. Considering I qualified eighth and I started in 20th twice,” he added.
KTM’s weekend was plagued by mechanical failures:
Maverick Vinales retired from the sprint with a technical issue.
Enea Bastianini’s race ended early due to a power loss.
Pedro Acosta’s electrical issue triggered a violent accident that led to the first red flag.
Binder’s seventh-place result matches his best finish of a challenging season, as uncertainty surrounds his future with KTM. Despite this, he remains optimistic: “Going forward, hopefully we can keep the positives from this weekend because in certain areas of the weekend I had really good pace and speed. So, I feel like we’ve made good inroads, and we just need to put everything together now.”
With KTM facing reliability concerns and lineup changes on the horizon, Binder’s resilience and positive outlook will be crucial as the season progresses.
