Red Bull KTM Ajo rider just 0.169s off setting fastest time on Friday. Teammate Bo Bendsneyder concludes the day 21st.

Moto3 World Championship leader Brad Binder started the thirteenth round of the year at Misano placing second on the first day of free practice. The South African, who comes into the San Marino GP very motivated after his victory at Silverstone, was very close to the fastest time, stopping the clock just 0.169s short of the top lap. Meanwhile, teammate Bo Bendsneyder worked on setting up his KTM, improving his lap time in the second practice session and closing the day in 21st position.

Pleasant temperatures of 22ºC greeted the riders in the opening Free Practice session of the weekend. The morning run was interrupted by a red flag just four minutes in, due to oil on the track, but once it was cleared Binder established himself as one of the fastest riders in the class. Only a small electronics problem prevented him from completing the final four minutes of the session, but his 1:43.801 lap was enough to give him fourth on the timesheets. Bendsneyder, in fifteenth, set his fastest lap of 1:44.568 on his final attempt.

In the afternoon, with higher track temperatures of around 40ºC, the Red Bull KTM Ajo riders continued working on the setup of their bikes. Brad Binder remained in the top two throughout the session, only running fresh tyres on his last stint. The time that took him to second overall –1:42.974– was clocked on his final lap of the day. Bendsneyder followed the same strategy as his teammate, making three stops, and lowered his lap time from the morning to put in a 1:44.190 –putting him nineteenth.

Tomorrow sees the riders battle for the thirteenth pole position of the season. Three so far have gone to Brad Binder. In the last such session, at Silverstone, Bo Bendsneyder achieved his best result of his rookie season with third.

Results (Combined practice time FP1-FP2)
1. Enea Bastianini (Honda) 1:42.805
2. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:42.974 +0.169
3. Joan Mir (KTM) 1:43.291 +0.486
4. Jakub Kornfeil (Honda) 1:43.408 +0.603
5. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Honda) 1:43.417 +0.612
21. Bo Bendsneyder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:44.190 +1.385

41 BRAD BINDER “In the first session I felt very good and I went fast right from the beginning. A small electronics problem prevented me from putting in laps during the final minutes of the session. I had some bad luck, but this happens sometimes. The team have a lot of experience and talent, and the issue was easy to fix. In the afternoon I started from where I had left off in the morning, with heavily used tyres, and I felt very strong. I was able to ride just 0.2s off my fastest time, all by myself and without the aid of a slipstream, so I’m happy. Tomorrow we will get on the bike and see what we can do, but we should aspire to the highest places.”

64 BO BENDSNEYDER “Today was a difficult day, and right from the opening laps we found it hard. FP1 was not bad, but in the second session we went out on used tyres and we had difficulties. Part of the problem with the tyres is the high track temperature -conditions that we haven’t encountered in a while. In any case, we are not worried, we will review the data this afternoon to analyse everything and work hard to improve for tomorrow, because we have the potential to go faster.”