Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto3 rider is hampered by high track temperatures in qualifying and has to settle for 20th place.

After a positive day on Friday to start the Catalan GP, Darryn Binder experienced a more difficult Saturday -reflected in his twentieth position in qualifying. Trying out different things in FP3 and unfavourable weather conditions in qualifying were the main hindrances to the South African, and he will take off from the seventh row of the grid tomorrow.

Happy with the setup he found yesterday, Darryn Binder went out in the morning with modifications for his KTM to see the results. The trial and error procedure did not go as expected and he fell short of lowering his best time from yesterday. A good third stint allowed him to climb to thirteenth place -1:49.627.

The 28°C ambient temperature and radiant sunshine made the asphalt temperature rise to 45°C. That affected Binder, who couldn’t find the ideal setup with which to clock a fast lap. His best time was that set on his second attempt: A 1:49.897, for 20th.

Tomorrow’s 21-lap Catalan GP starts at 11:00am local time, and Darryn Binder will look for another fightback to place inside the points for a fourth consecutive race.

Results (Qualifying session)
1. Enea Bastianini (Honda) 1:48.806
2. Jorge Martin (Honda) +0.107
3. Tatsuki Suzuki (Honda) +0.251
4. Ayumu Sasaki (Honda) +0.253
5. Aron Canet (Honda) +0.309
20. Darryn Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +1.091

40 DARRYN BINDER
“In qualifying the main problem was the temperature, since it was much hotter than yesterday in FP2. This morning in FP3 we tried something that wasn’t bad, but it didn’t work as well as what we had tried yesterday. That meant that in qualifying we reverted to our Friday setup, and I got my good feeling back. Unfortunately the temperature made it very hard to match yesterday’s times. If we look at the standings for the sessions, many of us who were high up yesterday struggled more today.
Tomorrow the race will be at 11:00am, so it should be a little colder and I trust that we will go well. We will start from 20th position, but I’m sure we can do a good job and make a comeback like at Mugello. The times are very similar and I imagine that during the opening laps a group will form at the front. We will try to be in there, because I think the group might break up sooner than at Mugello.”