A damp Grand Prix of Thailand produced another memorable chapter of a long 2024 MotoGP championship campaign and the soaking circuit at Buriram was a platform for Jack Miller and Brad Binder to show off their bravery and skills with the KTM RC16 once more. Miller rode to 5th position after launching from 15th on the grid and was holding a podium place for most of the race while Binder ran with the leaders and was 6th.
Friday was hot and sunny, Saturday humid and cloudy and race day produced wet conditions for the eighteenth MotoGP dispute of the season at Buriram and the fifth-ever Grand Prix of Thailand. Circulating an immaculate 12-corner and 4.5km circuit populated with an 85,000 crowd, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing not only had their eye on the best possible results with the KTM RC16 but also the run to Malaysia and Spain to close the championship and open the first step to 2025 with the next official MotoGP test only three-and-a-half weeks away.
Binder and Miller started the 26-lap Grand Prix from the sides of the fifth row. Cutting through the gloom and the spray in the first two laps the South African had recovered ground to be roaming the top five while the Australian carved his way through and soon overtook his teammate to reach P4. Jack was then in the running for the podium and only a late attack by Pedro Acosta bumped him away from the Prosecco. Brad crossed the line in 6th and just three tenths behind.
Two rounds and a maximum of 74 points lay on the table for the rest of 2024. Binder is 5th in the standings. Miller is 14th and KTM sit 6th from 11 in the Teams contest while they rank 2nd in the Constructors championship.
MotoGP immediately moves on to another tropical climate and to the penultimate race of the year with the Malaysian Grand Prix at the Sepang International Circuit next weekend.
Jack Miller, 5th: “A good race. A long old one. The first laps were a bit hairy and the spray was hectic and so was the carnage. I found my way through to 4th and when Marc threw it down I was 3rd for a while. I was really suffering from the front end as I’d cooked the front tire and all my roll speed has pretty much gone. With three laps to go there was nothing left and I was being hunted. I gave it all I could to be on the podium but it wasn’t to be. It was a good race though and good pace. Consistent and perhaps coming through the pack cost us the most and put the most stress on the tire. I really wanted that podium.”
Brad Binder, 6th: “I knew it would be important to get to the front early because of the spray and that worked out pretty well. I felt really comfortable to thanks to my guys for the changes we made because I felt great in the wet. It was just a shame that I had squared the tire by the last four or five laps and was just spinning a lot. Hard to drive out of the corners. I wanted more but having started 13th and scoring 6th then that’s all we had today.”
Francesco Guidotti, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “The visibility in the first laps was crazy but both Jack and Brad recovered a lot of positions and we had 3rd until two laps from the end. We missed the podium by almost nothing. The conditions were hard, a mess, and to stay-up was a miracle. Congratulations to our guys for their job and we’ll look forward to Sepang.”
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