Third consecutive podium for Binder

10/04/2016

Red Bull KTM Ajo rider takes third place at the Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas on last lap. Bo Bendsneyder completes the race twenty-second.

Brad Binder claimed a third consecutive podium of the season with third place at the Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas, coming through on race day despite seemingly not being as strong as at the opening two rounds of the season. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider showed that he always saves his best for Sunday and, after riding in fifth for most of the race, the South African gained two places on the last three laps to finish on the podium. He remains the leader of the Moto3 World Championship after Round 3. Bo Bendsneyder completed his third race of the year in twenty-second position.

Starting from the fourth row of the grid, the race was not an easy challenge for Brad Binder. He moved up five positions in the first sector of the first lap, then slotted in behind Fabio Quartararo as the two mounted an assault on the podium places. Despite being slightly separated from the Top 3 with 8 laps remaining, a mechanical problem for another rider enabled him to gain a position. However, the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider would not settle for fourth, and hunted down Philipp Oettl to pass him at Turn 12 of the last lap.

Bo Bendsneyder had a tricky race in Austin. Setting off from twenty-third position, the rookie was caught up in a jam at the unique opening corner of the Circuit of the Americas. The Dutchman recovered from the setback to move up the order during the 18-lap race, crossed the finish line in twenty-second.

After two back-to-back races, the Moto3 World Championship will take a week off to travel to Europe. The next round takes place on April 22nd when the Red Bull Grand Prix of Spain gets underway. Brad Binder arrives there as leader, with a total of 52 points. Bendsneyder is twenty-third with 2 points to his name.

Results (Race)
1. Romano Fenati (KTM) 41:14.868
2. Jorge Navarro (Honda) +6.612
3. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +10.535
4. Philipp Oettl (KTM) +10. 975
5. Andrea Locatelli (KTM) +13.845
22. Bo Bendsneyder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +48.442

Moto3 World Championship Standing 2016
1. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 52 points

2. Jorge Navarro (Honda) 49 points
3. Romano Fenati (KTM) 38 points
4. Niccolo Antonelli (Honda) 31 points
5. Khairul Idham Pawi (Honda) 25 points
23. Bo Bendsneyder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2 points

Aki Ajo- Team Manager
“It definitely wasn’t our easy race, but we should be happy as Brad [Binder] has taken another podium and we are still leading the championship. The season is long and sometimes you have difficult races -even more than normal. Brad was intelligent again during the race; he did not push too hard because his feeling was not perfect with the bike today, but at the end he was very strong and scored another podium. I’m happy about that. As for Bo [Bendsneyder], the weekend started quite well, although in QP he was unlucky with the condition of the track and did not get the result we had hoped to achieve. Today he started very far back. He also didn’t have a good feeling with the front end, so we must analyse what happened during the race. Despite all this, he was able to finish and gained more experience, which ultimately is what we are looking for with Bo.”

41 BRAD BINDER

“Throughout the weekend I thought I would not be so lucky in today’s race. We had a good feeling with the bike from the beginning, and I was able to ride comfortably. When there were 8 laps remaining, I wasn’t sure about what to do, because I saw that I could not keep up the pace of Quartararo and Oettl -so I suffered until the end. Everything changed when I saw Fabio begin to have problems and that Phillip was not going so strongly anymore. I didn’t want to push completely, but wanted to be consistent and cut the gap. In the end, on the last lap I managed it and took a third consecutive podium. I want to thank the whole team and hope that we can continue the same in Europe.”

64 BO BENDSNEYDER

“The truth is that today’s race was very tough. I had a lot of chatter throughout the race, so it was very difficult to go fast. I finished the race and I was able to compete with some other riders, but overall we have not had a good day. We need to keep working hard and keep learning from everything. I’m looking forward to racing in Europe; I know the circuits there, like at the next round in Jerez.”

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