Current leader of Moto3 World Championship puts in fastest time on Friday. Teammate Bo Bendsneyder ends the day 19th.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo team enjoyed a productive first day of practice for the Czech Republic on Friday. Following on from his return to the podium places in Austria, Brad Binder hit the ground running at Brno. The South African clocked the fastest lap of the circuit during FP2, setting a 2:08.047 time, and was unmatched in the overall timesheet for the day. Teammate Bo Bendsneyder has improved his feeling with the bike and track during the day, taking nineteenth position in the combined Friday standings.

Free Practice 1 gave a sign of Binder’s intentions, as he was the first to top the timesheets. Comfortable with his KTM bike, the South African had the best pace of the Moto3 field and lowered his fastest time on three consecutive occasions. Only at the end of the session, he was relegated to third place, with a best lap of 2:08.712. Bendsneyder was eighteenth, with a time of 2:10.189.

In the second practice session Binder again took the top spot early. Bendsneyder also came out strongly, improving his FP1 time before his first time back in the garage. Binder cut tenths off his lap time on three occasions on his final stint with new tyres, and his final lap of 2:08.047 was enough to make him the standout rider of the day. A 2:09.508 lap for Bendesneyder on his last run situated him nineteenth.

Tomorrow sees the qualifying session for the Czech GP. Brad Binder will be aiming for the pole position that eluded him at the last GP, whilst Bendsneyder hopes to get a place on the grid that allows him to fight for points.

Results (Combined practice time FP1-FP2)
1. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:08.047
2. Andrea Migno (KTM) 2:08.143 +0.096
3. Enea Bastianini (Honda) 2:08.219 +0.172
4. Francesco Bagnaia (Mahindra) 2:08.465 +0.418
5. Nicolo Bulega (KTM) 2:08.613 +0.566
19. Bo Bendsneyder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:09.508 +1.461

41 BRAD BINDER “I feel like I’m doing well, like in Austria. The feeling we have here is very good; we still have to work to improve some things but I’m happy with the two free practice sessions of today. We lacked a bit of pace with used tyres, which is basically where our setup improvements can come from, but with new tyres things were completely different. I felt very good and full of energy with the new tyres. I felt strong for an opening day, and I hope to keep this up over the entire weekend.”

64 BO BENDSNEYDER “It’s been a difficult day, because on the last few laps I felt a weakness in my left hand again. It’s something we will have to look at for the race. We also need to continue working on the bike and see at what points we can take a step forward. We are the 19th on the timesheets, but we should be higher up because my fastest lap was done with a lot of traffic around, so I hope that tomorrow we can lower it even more.”