Pedro Acosta set the pace in both Friday sessions at the Austrian MotoGP, but his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing team-mate Brad Binder also left the Red Bull Ring with a significantly better starting point than usual. Binder finished Practice eighth-fastest and went directly into Q2, a notable improvement for a rider who has struggled to stay inside the top 10 consistently this season. He described the day as much more positive than his recent outings.

Binder said the progress was visible from the opening laps of FP1. He concentrated on building his rhythm without relying on another rider, then made incremental gains each time he went out. That meant his final run was about finding a couple of tenths rather than trying to recover a full second, giving the team a more useful platform for the next sessions.

Why the rear tyre mattered

Binder linked part of the improvement to Michelin’s harder rear-tyre construction for the Red Bull Ring. The 10-turn circuit contains numerous hard accelerations close together, creating a substantial heat-management challenge for the tyre. Similar heat-dissipation constructions are also used at Buriram and Mandalika. The specific construction brought to the Red Bull Ring, however, is used only in Austria and Brazil.

The KTM rider said the different rear tyre does not load the front of the RC16 as heavily. That reduces the front-tyre issues he normally encounters and gives him more confidence to ride the bike. The tyre advantage does not remove the circuit’s wider difficulties, but it appears to have made the bike’s behaviour easier for Binder to exploit.

A strength at the hardest braking point

The Red Bull Ring remains a low-grip track where a clean lap is difficult to assemble. Binder said that missing a braking marker by roughly half a metre is enough to cost time. Turn four illustrated the problem on Friday: Johann Zarco ran off twice, Diogo Moreira went wide there on multiple occasions, and Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi also had moments in the same area.

Binder sees that corner from a more positive perspective because it highlights one of the KTM’s strengths. He said the RC16 was stopping very well and that its drive out of the turn was working better for him than ever before. He still believed a few tenths were available, but eighth place and direct Q2 qualification gave him a stronger base for free practice, qualifying and the race.