By Samkelo “Sports Mjita” Gambushe

South Africa’s Brad Binder finished second for MotoGP team Red Bull KTM Factory Racing in the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix. Italy’s reigning world champion and Ducati rider, Francesco Bagnaia, stormed into the lead in the opening lap of the race and held it until the end to win the race. Polesitter Spain’s Jorge Martin of Pramac Racing had to settle for third. Bagnaia leads the world championship standings with 31 points followed by Binder in second and Martin in third.

“We can’t complain,” said Binder. “Two second places to start the season is fantastic. I’m much happier with the second place of today compared to the second place of yesterday.

“Yesterday I felt we were missing something but today it was much better. I knew today was going to be a super difficult race because we are super hard on the rear tyre sometimes. I needed to get it to the end so I was as clean as I could be. It was hard to stay composed because I could see Pecco was just there. It was like a carrot dangling and you just want to go for it. But I knew that if I attempted to push I might catch up a bit but I would lose a couple of seconds in the last few laps. I had to be really clever. It was awesome battling Jorge and I had a lot of fun. Let’s see if we can improve a bit because it would be awesome to give these boys a fight next time around.”

Moto GP will head to Europe next for the Portugal Grand Prix on the 24th of March.

Picture: AFP