Pit Beirer: "Brad Binder is a gigantic rider" / MotoGP

After Brad Binder’s second place at the Motegi GP in Japan, KTM managed to return to the podium. Race boss Pit Beirer was also happy about Oliveira’s 5th place.

After grid positions 3 and 8 for Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira, the Red Bull KTM factory team was delighted with a splendid starting position for the 24-lap race at the Japanese GP at the Mobility Resort Motegi. KTM Motorsport Director Pit Beirer noticed a first improvement eight days ago in Aragon with grid positions 10 and 11. In the race, Binder and Oliveira finished 4th and 11th there. Both KTM aces in qualifying2, that rarely worked before Aragón in the 2022 season – in Mandalika, Portimão and Assen.

In an interview with SPEEDWEEK.com, Pit Beirer was relieved after the successful Japanese GP. What did the KTM racing boss calculate after qualifying?

Pit, at Assen and Silverstone Brad Binder and Miguel Oliveira were among the front runners but KTM had to wait 13 races for a podium after Oliveira’s victory in Indonesia. But third place on the grid gave hope?

Well, having had good race pace lately, I was hoping for a good race. We had the feeling that a podium should be possible again thanks to this starting position.

We had this feeling in the whole team on Sunday morning. However, at the end of the day, you also have to pull it off.

With Brad we simply have a gigantic driver on our side. He demonstrated that again in Motegi.

We’re all happy now because we haven’t been on the podium for a long time.

It was a good payback for the whole team who worked hard on it.

Brad Binder took the lead in the first corner. Did you briefly think about winning?

No, because to speak of victories at the moment would be presumptuous. Now we have to work our way back to the podium step by step.
It was clear to us: There is little to complain about when it comes to our starting performance, we have proven that several times. It was no surprise then that Brad was able to head into the first corner as the leader. Thanks to the engine department!

But then the choice of tires wasn’t very clear, there was the whole menu from soft to medium to hard at the back.

Our top tire engineer Andre Cantó made the right choice once again. She dared to make the choice with the hard rear tire.

Because of the wet Saturday and the only F1 dry practice session on Friday, no driver on the grid had any experience with the race tires, at least not over the long term.
It was already clear that you have to be really careful with the choice “hard-hard” at the beginning until the tires are really warm.
But everything went well.

It was definitely our big goal to be on the podium this week after missing it by two tenths in Aragón.
The fact that third place became second place in the end was a pure, ingenious Brad Binder maneuver on the last lap. Of course we were very happy about that.

On Thursday, Brad Binder still had doubts as to whether Motegi with its slow corners was a good fit for the KTM. But the bike is now working much better than it has often done in recent months at different circuits such as Aragón and Motegi.

We took the aforementioned weaknesses home with us as a very brutal result from Spielberg. We then focused on that in the weeks that followed.

There were already updates during the test in Misano. We have certainly improved in this area. That was our goal. That worked.

It’s important as we look ahead that we’re performing well at different tracks now.

MotoGP result, Motegi (25 September):

1. Miller, Ducati, 24 Rdn in 42:29,174 min
2. Brad Binder, KTM, + 3,409 sec
3. Martin, Ducati, +4,136
4. Marc Marquez, Honda, +7,784
5. Oliveira, KTM, + 8,185
6. Marini, Ducati, +8,348
7. Viñales, Aprilia, + 9.879
8. Quartararo, Yamaha, +10,193
9. Bastianini, Ducati, + 10.318
10. Bezzecchi, Ducati, + 16,419
11. Zarco, Ducati, + 16,586
12. Pol Espargaro, Honda, +17,456
13. Alex Marquez, Honda, +18,219
14. Morbidelli, Yamaha, +19,012
15. Crutchlow, Yamaha, +19,201
16. Aleix Espargaró, Aprilia, + 25.473
17. By Giannantonio, Ducati, + 27.006
18. Raúl Fernández, KTM, + 29,374
19. Gardner, KTM, + 29,469
20. Nakagami, Honda, +43,294
– Bagnaia, Ducati, 1 round back
– Rins, Suzuki, 10 laps down
– Darryn Binder, Yamaha, 10 laps down
– Tsuda, Suzuki, 13 laps back
– Nagashima, Honda, 15 laps down

MotoGP World Championship standings (after 16 of 20 races):

1.Quartararo 219 Punkte. 2. Bagnaia 201. 3. Aleix Espargaró 194. 4. Bastianini 170. 5. Miller 159. 6. Brad Binder 148. 7. Zarco 138. 8. Martin 120. 9. Viñales 113. 10. Rins 108. 11. Oliveira 106. 12. Marini 101. 13. Bezzecchi 80. 14. Mir 77. 15. Marc Márquez 73. 16. Pol Espargaró 47. 17. Nakagami 46. 18. 18. Alex Márquez 42. 19. Morbidelli 28. 20. Di Giannantonio 23. 21. Dovizioso 15. 22. Darryn Binder 10. 23. Gardner 9. 24. Raúl Fernández 8. 25. Crutchlow 3. 26. Bradl 2.

Constructors’ Championship:
1. Ducati 371 points (title winner). 2. Aprilia 226. 3. Yamaha 221. 4. KTM 181. 5. Suzuki 134. 6. Honda 113.

Team World Cup:
1. Ducati Lenovo Team 360 Punkte. 2. Aprilia Racing 307. 3. Prima Pramac Racing 258. 4. Red Bull KTM Factory 254. 5. Monster Energy Yamaha 247. 6. Gresini Racing 193. 7. Suzuki Ecstar 185. 8. Mooney VR46 Racing 181. 9. Repsol Honda 122. 10. LCR Honda 88. 11. WithU Yamaha RNF 28. 12. Tech3 KTM Factory 17.

Welcome to the Motegi race