Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rider takes fifth place in sweltering qualifying session. Miguel Oliveira will start from the sixth row.

Brad Binder equalled his best qualifying result of the season so far this Saturday at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit, with a magnificent fifth position. The South African made the most of a third and final stint in qualifying to set personal best lap of the weekend. Miguel Oliveira had to settle for seventeenth place after not feeling fully comfortable.

Binder came out very strong in the last Free Practice session of the weekend. He led the way in the first 5 minutes of FP3 and clocked a 1:44.095 to place him sixth. Oliveira took a more cautious approach after a knock to his elbow in a crash yesterday in FP2, but was able to lower his best time and finish in fourteenth place -1:44.342.

The 53°C track temperature for qualifying made things challenging for Binder and Oliveira. They would have to modify their setups in order to set their best times, and both did so on their last stint. Binder was the most successful on his last five laps, improving on his previous times twice and rising to fifth place -1:43.867. Oliveira finished seventeenth -1:44.429.

The pair will try to fight for a place on the podium at the Barcelona-Catalunya Circuit tomorrow -something they have both done before. The 22-lap race will start at 12:20pm local time.

Results (Qualifying session)
1. Fabio Quartararo (Speed Up) 1:43.474
2. Alex Marquez (Kalex) +0.116
3. Marcel Schrotter (Kalex) +0.145
4. Francesco Bagnaia (Kalex) +0.347
5. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +0.393
17. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +0.955

44 MIGUEL OLIVEIRA
“Our progress throughout the weekend has not been as positive as we would have liked. Our rivals have greatly improved their times and we have not done so by as large a margin. In qualifying the biggest problem was the lack of grip; the bike didn’t turn in much and I had to force things, which caused it to slide out. I’m on Row 6, which isn’t great because I’m right in the middle of the grid. I hope tomorrow we can improve our setup and make a good comeback from the beginning. The strategy is to gain places early and then do our best in what will be a tough race for everybody.

Tomorrow the race begins earlier than qualifying, so all the riders will have a little more grip. Physically I don’t feel as strong, as I have a bit of pain in my elbow, but I don’t think there will be any problems; we’ll see how it behaves in the race. Let’s see if tomorrow in the warmup we can find the path that allows us to be more competitive; In the race we will fight hard to be up there.”

 

41 BRAD BINDER
“I’m very happy. I’ve been training very hard all week preparing for this race and I’ve been fairly fast since FP1. During the entire weekend I’ve had a pretty good pace but I needed to get a slightly faster lap during qualifying in order to get a good spot on the grid; in qualifying I took that step up and I’m very happy about it. I am excited to start from fifth position tomorrow. It will be nice to be up there with the riders at the front, right from the start; I’ll try to hold on at the beginning and save something for the final laps. I think I can do a great job tomorrow. Of all the GPs this year, this is the race where I am the most prepared.”