Brad Binder was the fastest rider on Friday’s standings at Sachsenring, with his teammate, Jorge Martin, in 13th position.

With extra motivation from the podium result at Assen, the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 team started the German Grand Prix positively, topping the combined timesheets on the first day of action. Brad Binder and his cew made great progress between FP1 and FP2, to finish with the best Friday time in the intermediate category. For his part, Jorge Martin also provisionally qualified for Q2, after concluding 13th.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 pair began with good pace in the morning. Jorge Martin was at the top of the classification in the early stages of FP1 and, finally, set his personal best on lap 18 of 22 – 1:24.777 -, for sixth place. His teammate, Brad Binder, achieved a time of 1:25.066 on the penultimate lap of 23, leaving him 0.7s off the first spot, in 15th position.

In FP2, the South African rider took a big step forward, improving on his morning benchmark by more than a second. He clocked a 1:23.948 on lap 16 of 19 undertaken, to finish in first position in today’s combined standings. Meanwhile, Jorge Martin managed to drop his FP1 time by two tenths to 1:24.597, which earned him 13th place and a provisional Q2 slot for tomorrow.

Following the two sessions held today, Brad Binder and Jorge Martin have a final free practice tomorrow morning, before the Moto2 grid for the German GP is decided in Q1 and Q2, at 3:05 pm and 3:30 pm, respectively.

Combined practice times (FP1 – FP2)
1. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:23.948
2. Xavi Vierge (Kalex) 1:24.328 +0.380
3. Iker Lecuona (KTM) 1:24.328 +0.380
4. Jonas Folger (Kalex) 1:24.354 +0.406
5. Marcel Schrotter (Kalex) 1:24.361 +0.413
13. Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:24.597 +0.649

41 BRAD BINDER

“The day went pretty well, we were first in FP2 and that’s always positive. However, we have to keep pushing, as we still need to improve on certain points. I feel comfortable riding with new tyres but, when they wear out, the sensations are different. Anyway, I’m very happy because the team worked hard and found several solutions that allow us to better understand the behaviour of the bike. If we keep focused, I’m sure we can play our part well this weekend.”

88 JORGE MARTIN

“This morning I was very comfortable on top of the bike, even though we had some issues. In the afternoon, we made some changes to try to fix them, however it didn’t work out the way we’d hoped. We have to keep working to fine-tune the set-up of our machine. Luckily we still have Saturday to find that extra something to get ahead in the race. For tomorrow, the objective is to be in Q2, because at this circuit it’s important to qualify well in order to have a competitive race.”