Brad Binder places third, with teammate Miguel Oliveira accompanying him in the Top 10.

Unlike yesterday, the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 riders were able to enjoy more than two and a half hours of dry testing time on Wednesday in Jerez. Both Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira took advantage of this to finish defining their best dry setups, ahead of the first race of the year. The South African was the fastest of the two today, placing third on the combined timesheets with a lap only 0.188s off the top spot; Oliveira was eighth, half a second back.

The Moto2 riders only had to wait 20 minutes for the track to dry out. The improved conditions allowed Binder and Oliveira to go faster in the first hour than the times they had set yesterday. In the afternoon they lowered these times significantly, with more than 20 laps apiece, and they achieved this with heavily worn tyres. Binder’s 1:42.011 lap put him third in the second session after he had led early on, and Oliveira seventh -1:42.395. In the last hour of the day, rain that fell with half an hour remaining prevented them from making further improvements.

Based on the bad weather forecast for tomorrow, both riders expect to put in few laps on Thursday. They aim to go out on track only if the conditions are fully wet.

Combined Standings Day2
1. Sam Lowes (KTM) 1:41.823
2. Iker Lecuona (KTM) 1:41.960 +0.137
3. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:42.011 +0.188
4. Francesco Bagnaia (Kalex) 1:42.011 +0.188
5. Xavi Vierge (Kalex) 1:42.127 +0.304
8. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:42.395 +0.572

44 MIGUEL OLIVEIRA
“Overall, today has been positive. We’ve tried different setups that have given us very different results -both positive and not so positive. We’ll gather all of that to take to Qatar. I’m sure that we have a very good bike for the start of the season, I trust in the team completely to do a good job in the first race of the season. Now we will make a small reset based on all of the tests we’ve had.
I feel good physically and I feel relaxed on the bike. In the end, we have to finish setting up the bike with new tyres. We’re lacking a little bit of luck with new tyres; leaving us with a bittersweet taste because we haven’t got the most out of the bike. We’ll see tomorrow if the weather allows us to ride in conditions that are at least completely wet.”

41 BRAD BINDER
“I’m very happy. I think that we’ve taken some important steps forward; we’ve been able to understand the behaviour of the bike better when the tyres have race distance in them. The important thing is that we have been able to set very good times with tyres that have more laps in them than the duration of a race, as this is very positive for me. In the second session I felt a little more comfortable, I came in and we made a small change that will definitely help me feel more comfortable and allowed me to run a good pace.
I feel that we have a very good setup and I feel ready for Qatar. We’ve worked very well and are prepared to get the first race underway. We’ll put in a few laps in the wet tomorrow, but only if the track is really wet.”