‘Demanding but progressive’- Brad Binder on his pre-season warm up

South African motoGP World Champion Brad Binder said he was happy with the pre-season progress at Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, despite it being a jam-packed three days in Malaysia.

Binder drove in his first season as the season rider on a factory team with Pedro Acosta joining him at the Factory team. Acosta finished ahead of Binder during the shakedown session at Sepang Racetrack.

Binder recorded a fastest lap time of 1:57:614 and finished 13th fastest overall on Friday. Acosta was sixth overall, with a fastest lap of 1:57:175.

“Busy 3 days complete. Today was a bit demanding but that’s what tests are for. Overall happy with our progress and findings before going to Buriram next week to keep working on refining our 2025 package. First though…we’re headed to Bangkok for the MotoGP launch,” Binder said.

The Red Bull team had three days to put the RC16 through its paces in Sepang before they leave for Thailand for the first race of the season.

Spanish rider Alex Marquez, 28, led the pack at Sepang for Ducati’s satellite team Gresini Racing.

Marquez finished day three the day ahead of his brother Marc Marquez with a fastest lap of 1:56:493.

Meanwhile, World Champion Jorge Martin was seen out of hospital after his crash on day 2 of testing. Martin took a nasty fall after losing control of the bike and crashing on his legs and face.

Reports from Michelin Tyres indicate that Martin’s rear tire was not at the correct temperature, which is likely to have caused the crash.