Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira place 16th and 23rd in qualifying, as mixed track conditions prevent them from improving their positions.

The state of the newly resurfaced Silverstone circuit after rainfall was again a major talking point on Saturday, as it had a large bearing on the results in Moto2 qualifying. The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 riders will start from further back than they had hoped: Brad Binder took a place on the sixth row with 16th, whilst Miguel Oliveira is on the eighth row -23rd.

The duo were also unfortunate in FP3, as the first drops of rain fell 13 minutes before the end of that session. Both had used the opening half-hour to work on their dry setup. They took an important step forward, with the Portuguese climbing to 12th place -2:09.021- and Binder finishing 17th -2:09.162.

The rain that came down before Moto2 QP caused Binder and Oliveira to undertake their first run with wet tyres. After spending a few laps assessing the condition of the asphalt, both changed to slicks, although there were areas of the track -mostly the second sector- that never dried out. Although the two Red Bull KTM Ajo riders set their fastest times on their last lap, Binder eventually finished 16th -2:09.252- and Oliveira 23rd -2:09.968.

Tomorrow’s race is expected to be wet, and the MotoGP contest has already been rescheduled for 11:30am. The Red Bull KTM Ajo riders will aim to make big fightbacks in the Moto2 race, which will start at 2:30pm local time.

Results (Qualifying session)
1. Francesco Bagnaia (Kalex) 2:08.153
2. Remy Gardner (Tech 3) 2:08.347 +0.194
3. Alex Marquez (Kalex) 2:08.411 +0.258
4. Marcel Schrotter (Kalex) 2:08.442 +0.289
5. Luca Marini (Kalex) 2:08.643 +0.490
16. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:09.252 +1.099
23. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2:09.968 +1.815

44 MIGUEL OLIVEIRA
“It seems that the weather is the toughest opposition we have right now. The qualifying session was going pretty well; I felt comfortable about being able to improve, but I didn’t understand well where I could push on the wet part of the circuit, and I ended up losing a lot of time there. I’m not happy with my position on the grid but you have to be positive and try to gain the maximum possible positions tomorrow. In theory the race will be wet, so we have to try to predict how wet the asphalt will be and try to achieve the best possible result.”

 

41 BRAD BINDER
“This weekend has been difficult. I feel that I have ridden very little. I have managed to do very few good laps over these past two days. In general, qualifying was difficult, because it started very wet and then it didn’t dry out completely; the second sector was still very wet whilst other areas had already dried up. Looking at the timesheets, I was losing half a second on the second sector; a few tenths that would have made a difference. We have to accept it, we’re starting from sixteenth and it could be worse; We’ll see how everything goes tomorrow. It is likely that in the race it will rain a lot, but regardless of the weather I will do my best; I think we can do a good job.”