Red Bull KTM Ajo rider suffers a crash in the early stages of the first race of the year, when riding in the Top10.

There was an unfortunate end to the first Grand Prix of the year for Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Darryn Binder at the Losail International Circuit on Sunday, as he was unable to finish the race due to a crash. Following a great start, the South African crashed on Lap 4 and had a fightback -which had taken him into the Top 10- curtailed ahead of time.

Starting from the seventh row of the grid, the challenge was not an easy one for Binder in his inaugural race for the Red Bull KTM Ajo team. Whilst he would not gain many positions off the line, he did manage to overtake eight riders in the first two sectors and completed the first lap as the rider with the most number of places won. From there, the South African gained two more positions to move into tenth, before the incident with another rider at Turn 8 on Lap 4.

Whilst the inaugural GP of 2018 did not go as planned, Darryn Binder will soon be back onboard his KTM bike; in three weeks time, from April 6th-8th, the only South American event of the year takes place in Argentina.

Results (Race)
1. Jorge Martin (Honda) 38:18.207
2. Aron Canet (Honda) +0.023
3. Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Honda) +6.746
4. Niccolo Antonelli (Honda) +6.791
5. Gabriel Rodrigo (KTM) +6.850
DNF. Darryn Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo)
 

Moto3 World Championship Standing 2018
1. Jorge Martin (Honda) 25 points
2. Aron Canet (Honda) 20 points
3. Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Honda) 16 points
4. Niccolo Antonelli (Honda) 13 points
5. Gabriel Rodrigo (KTM) 11 points
-. Darryn Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 0 points

AKI AJO – TEAM MANAGER
“It was a shame about Darryn’s [Binder] crash in Moto3. However, I can say that we have taken positive things away from this weekend. Darryn has shown great improvement in his work after a winter break that wasn’t easy for us; firstly because of his injury that prevented him from testing in November, and then with bad weather that did not allow us to have as many test days as we wanted. He had good Free Practice sessions and in the race he showed on the opening laps that he is fast. We have to analyse all the data we have and focus on Argentina as of now.”

40 DARRYN BINDER
“The first race weekend is over and obviously it’s ended without the result that we wanted, but we can take away everything positive that we have learned here in Qatar. I think we can keep moving forward and concentrate on Argentina. It didn’t go as we expected, as during the first few laps I gained some positions and felt comfortable, but got clipped on the fourth lap and crashed. Until then I was feeling good and my lap times were faster than in practice, but that’s racing. It’s time to think about the next race, so I’m looking forward to going to Argentina.”