The Grand Prix of Germany took place in front of another enormous 98,000 raceday crowd at the compact and captivating Sachsenring circuit. The ninth ‘stage’ of the 2024 MotoGP season saw Red Bull KTM Factory Racing trying to conquer the unique layout as Brad Binder endured 30 fast laps to classify 9th while teammate Jack Miller grabbed three points for 13th position.
Chilly winds then hot summer conditions and finally overcast and cool asphalt: the Sachsenring threw plenty of challenging circumstances at Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and the rest of the MotoGP field across the three days of the ninth round of the current campaign. For the 30-lap Grand Prix on Sunday, Brad Binder and Jack Miller both tackled the 3.6km layout of never-ending corners, optimistic of preserving premium tire life and bettering their 8th and 11th scored in the sunny Saturday Sprint.
Binder made a better start but Miller was also sharp into the tight and technical first corner. Brad found himself circulating with Pedro Acosta and made his way up to the top seven but almost fell on the last lap into Turn 11, ran off track briefly and lost two spots, coming home 9th. Jack was limited by the possibilities of his rubber and made it to the flag in 13th.
MotoGP will pause for a three weekend break and then return to speed with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone during the first weekend of August, where KTM will commemorate the championship’s 75th anniversary with a special vintage livery.
Brad Binder, 9th: “We made some big changes for today’s race and everything was a bit easier to handle. It was better. The bike stopped a bit better but we clearly need to find more because the guys in front were in a league of their own. We got some valuable information to find a bit more speed and to keep the pace all the way through the race. On the last lap I lost the front down Turn 11 and lost two positions. Not ideal. I know what I am capable of and where we can be. We will keep fighting as hard as we can every session.”
Jack Miller, 13th: “Not the most ideal day. We managed to solve the front-end issues I had yesterday but we suffered from the get-go with the rear tire and couldn’t get it to hook up in a few corners. No matter what I did I couldn’t really get it to go through the first sector nicely. The others had just a bit more speed and a bit more lean angle. We got what we could out of it. We’ll keep plugging away. Saturday was a good day, today so-so. I’m happy to have the front feeling back with the bike. We are work in progress and we have 11 races to go.”
Francesco Guidotti, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Team Manager: “This weekend was quite unexpected. We thought we’d be in the leading group and it wasn’t to be. At least today we provided the best version of the bike to the riders that we’ve had this weekend, so perhaps we were too conservative on Friday. Today was pretty good but it was not enough. We lost too much time but looking ahead we have homework to do and we’ll be testing with Pol [Espargaro] next week. We want to be ready for Silverstone.”
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