SuperBike Magazine September 2020

25
The victory marks
the culmination of
Red Bull and KTM’s
long-term goals in
Grand Prix racing,
for the very first time having
taken a rider from feeder
series Red Bull Rookies
through their Moto3 and
Moto2 teams into MotoGP
and onto the top step of the
podium.
The former Moto3 world
champion came into the premier
class for 2020 as one of
the most hotly-tipped rookies
in years, with numerous MotoGP
riders quick to sing the
praises of the South African’s
testing performances before
the season had even got
underway.
And that was reflected in
Sunday’s race at Brno, where
the 24-year-old was able
to put on display the sort of
combination of raw talent and
supreme race-craft that only
MotoGP greats can show.
The first rookie to win in
his debut season since Marc
Marquez and joining a short
list that includes names like
Lorenzo and Pedrosa, there’s
still obviously much to learn
for the young Binder, something
that he himself was
quick to acknowledge after
the race.
Not just only his third race
in MotoGP, it was also his
first clean race after incidents
in both races at Jerez
saw him run off the track or
into other riders, something
he admitted was weighing
heavily on his mind coming
into the weekend at Brno.
“It’s unbelievable to think
where we are today, because
in Jerez 1 I made a
big mistake and took myself
out and in Jerez 2 I made
an even bigger one and took
someone out with me. It was
a tough week coming into this
because I was nervous about
ruining someone else’s race,
and I had to come here and
start fresh.
“Before I came to Brno I had
told myself that I needed to
take a step back in the race
because I had messed up the
first two by being overanxious
at the start. I did that, I didn’t
do anything crazy at the start,
and as I saw my opportunities
I made my moves without any
contact or trips to the gravel!”
However, it seems that once
Sunday’s race got underway
any apprehensions or nervousness
soon went out the
window for Binder. Able to
ride a completely flawless
race while many of his more
experienced rivals floundered
with tyre issues, he conceded
afterwards that his lack of
preconceptions might have
actually helped him.
“At the beginning of the race
I was following Fabio and I
could see that his tyre wasn’t
great but mine still felt quite
good so I decided to push on
and see what I could do. From
then it was just the craziest
ten laps of my life. It felt like
I did everything as softly and
as smoothly as possible,
because as soon as I tried to
do anything aggressive I got
crazy bumping.
“I knew we were going to
have a drop, and I held back
a lot at the beginning. I could
have smashed it on a bit but I
told myself to be smooth with
the throttle and on corner
exit.”
Despite Sunday’s amazing
success, it hasn’t been an
easy time in MotoGP so far
for Binder either. Well used to
hard work as he’s moved up
from domestic level championships
in South Africa and
the UK to Red Bull’s European
feeder series, his first
foray into MotoGP was rocky.
Struggling in pre-season
testing at the end of 2019, it