Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 rider achieves his best result of the season so far, ending the French GP in eleventh place.

Whilst Darryn Binder had arrived at Le Mans still smarting from an injury that had ruled him out of the Spanish GP, he left the French track with an eleventh place and 5 points to his name. The South African took his best qualifying result of the year on Saturday, and matched the achievement with his best race performance on Sunday.

Starting from the back of the fourth row, the start was not easy for the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider, but Binder successfully navigated the treacherous first chicane and gained two places. From there, the riders spread out and Binder was part of a large second group, along with a further seven riders in the fight for the eleventh place. Conservative on the first few laps, he decided to attack in the later stages, and his overtaking -combined with crashes at the front of the field- allowed him to complete the 22-lap contest in eleventh place.

With his Top 15 finish today, the South African took points for the second time this season and is twenty-first in the overall standings with 8 points. The next round of the campaign will be held at the Italian circuit of Mugello in two weeks’ time, on June 3rd.

Results (Race)
1. Albert Arenas (KTM) 37:40.056
2. Andrea Migno (KTM) +0.160
3. Marcos Ramirez (KTM) +0.709
4. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Honda) +1.811
5. Niccolo Antonelli (Honda) +2.305
11. Darryn Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +12.011

Moto3 World Championship Standing 2018
1. Marco Bezzechi (KTM) 63 points
2. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Honda) 59 points
3. Aron Canet (Honda) 56 points
4. Jorge Martin (Honda) 55 points
5. Andrea Migno (KTM) 45 points
21. Darryn Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 8 points

AKI AJO – TEAM MANAGER
“I am happy with progress we’ve made during the weekend with Darryn [Binder]. The start was not too easy for him, but Darryn has been improving session after session and working on the setup of his bike. I am especially happy about the race he rode today; he was very smart. He was fighting from the beginning for his position, whilst thinking carefully and preparing an attack for the end of the race. It isn’t easy to race in a large group of riders, but he has gained even more experience. We must continue in the same way and keep learning and improving over the coming rounds; the first being in Italy.”

40 DARRYN BINDER
“The race did not go as expected, because I thought I could be fighting with the front group. Even so, it was a good race, we were in the second group and the pace was good. I fought the whole race to be able to finish 11th, and taking 5 more points is not a bad result. I also suffered a little on the final laps, as I was feeling the pain of the crash at in Jerez. The best thing is that this weekend we were able to get a lot of information that I needed, and now I know what strengths I have and on which points I have to work. We have a test soon, so I hope I can fix these issues and fight again at Mugello.”