The Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 rider finishes fifth, whilst Jorge Martin suffers a crash with 7 laps remaining.

Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 team experienced mixed results at the Red Bull Grand Prix of Spain -the first European round of the season. Brad Binder put in a solid performance, salvaging a hard fought Top 5 finish after a difficult weekend. Jorge Martin suffered a crash 7 laps from the chequered flag, when attempting to break into the points.

An incident involving multiple riders on the opening corner of the race caused the contest to be restarted, at a reduced length of 15 laps. The South African managed to stay calm and got off the line well, maintaining his grid position of 10th. In just 7 laps, Brad Binder had gone up to fifth and a solid race pace allowed him to cross the line in that spot for a positive result.

Jorge Martin made a strong start the second time around, climbing two positions from 22nd on the grid. The reigning Moto3 World Champion progressively rose up the order, until crashing at Turn 10 when in 16th place, and he was unable to remount after the fall 7 laps from the end.

Brad Binder is 10th in the Moto2 overall standings, while Jorge Martin occupies 25th place. The next event for the Red Bull KTM Ajo Moto2 team will be the French Grand Prix, held from 17th to 19th May at the historic Le Mans circuit.

Results Moto2 Race
1. Lorenzo Baldasarri (Kalex) 25:33.841
2. Jorge Navarro (Speed Up) +0.359
3. Augusto Fernandez (Kalex) +1.091
4. Thomas Luthi (Kalex) +2.428
5. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) +3.767
DNF. Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo)

Moto2 World Championship Standing 2019
1. Lorenzo Baldasarri (Kalex) 75 points
2. Thomas Luthi (Kalex) 58 points
3. Marcel Schrotter (Kalex) 48 points
4. Jorge Navarro (Speed Up) 44 points
5. Remy Gardner (Kalex) 38 points
10. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 25 points
25. Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo) 2 points

Aki Ajo – Team manager
“It was a difficult weekend for us in Moto2. Brad Binder had a good performance, as it is not easy to ride here when it’s so hot. We had some issues controlling the bike and we suffered from chattering. I want to congratulate Brad because he has finally reached the Top 5, which is a solid result. Unfortunately, Jorge [Martin] crashed, but I want to emphasise that he did a great job throughout the weekend. After his fall beforehand, we understand that it was difficult for him to regain his confidence for the race. At the factory everybody is working very hard, preparing new updates continuously. I’m sure we’ll be fighting for the top positions soon.”

41 BRAD BINDER

“I have to thank the team, because we tried everything and worked very hard. Despite this, we weren’t able to find the way and we suffered from the same problems. When we managed to improve in one aspect, we had issues with another. Today was a very hard race for me; I tried to stay calm and be smart, because when you see that you have riders ahead, it is very difficult to resist the urge to push. I did my best, so we are happy about that. I hope we can change things for Le Mans because we are able to do much more than what we are showing now.”

88 JORGE MARTIN

“It was a difficult race. I got off the line very well on the first start, but the second one was a little harder for me. I managed to recover positions but the bike was skidding out a lot going into corners, making me run wide all the time. I tried not to lose contact with the group that were in the points. Unfortunately, I crashed, but the important thing is that I escaped uninjured. Despite not having finished the race, we have improved slightly, so now we have to take advantage of the test on Tuesday to keep making progress and get to the next race much stronger.”