Brad Binder and Jorge Martin will start the 13th race of the championship, the San Marino Grand Prix, from the sixth row of the grid.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 team continued their hard work in qualifying at the San Marino Grand Prix, with their efforts paying off as Brad Binder and Jorge Martin both improved on their Friday times. The South African and the Spaniard will both start the 13th race of the 2019 season from the sixth row of the grid.

Brad Binder took a noticeable step forward in the final free practice of the weekend, beating his best Friday time by almost a second. The South African rider made consistent progress throughout the session, notching his personal best – 1:38.266 – on the last lap of a total of 17, to finish ninth. On the other side of the box, Jorge Martin crashed at turn 6 when there were nine minutes to go, meaning he was then unable to improve his time. Ultimately, the Spaniard was 27th in FP3 – 1:39.688.

Thanks to his Saturday time, Brad Binder went straight into Q2, where he produced his personal best of the weekend – 1:38.211 – to qualify 16th on the starting grid for the San Marino GP. Meanwhile, current Moto3 World Champion, Jorge Martin, had to go through Q1, finishing that session in fourth with a time of 1:38.204, his fastest lap of the GP. In Q2, Martin qualified 17th – 1:38.223 – for Sunday’s race.

Tomorrow, the 25-lap Moto2 race will start at 12:20 pm local time.

Results (Qualifying session)
1. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Speed Up) 1:37.481
2. Alex Marquez (Kalex) 1:37.618 +0.137
3. Augusto Fernandez (Kalex) 1:37.645 +0.164
4. Remy Gardner (Kalex) 1:37.664 +0.183
5. Tetsuta Nagashima (Kalex) 1:37.671 +0.190
16. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:38.211 +0.730
17. Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 1:38.223 +0.742

41 BRAD BINDER

“We worked hard but we didn’t improve as much as we’d hoped to. We wanted to get a good qualifying position on the grid for tomorrow, but unfortunately in the QP I wasn’t able to ride comfortably. I did my best, but I was close to crashing a few times, though finally I was able to get through the session. We still have a lot to do however I think we can solve everything and try to put in a good performance in the race.”

88 JORGE MARTIN

“I am happy with how things went today. This morning the feeling was not that good, but we have made changes on some different aspects of the bike which helped me feel better. We went back to the style of bike set-up that I normally use and that means I can ride the way I know how. I bettered my pace by a second and a half, which is very positive. Tomorrow we have to improve by two or three tenths more to get into the top 10, which is a realistic goal.”