Speed and more speed for Red Bull KTM Factory Racing as the Gran Premio d’Italia spun around the 15 majestic curves of the Autodromo del Mugello and Brad Binder raced to 6th position in the seventh Sprint of the 2024 MotoGP season. The South African started from 13th on the grid and made seven positions to grab 4 points. Jack Miller launched from the seventh row and classified 12th after 11 laps in Tuscany as Pol Espargaro made a fast return to Red Bull KTM colors in the Spaniard’s first wildcard appearance.
- Binder clocks the 3rd fastest lap through Q1 and seals 13th position in qualification. #33 then starts brilliantly and races to 6th
- Miller doesn’t make the cut in Q1 and takes to the grid in 19th place. Under bright skies and warm temperatures the Australian completes the Sprint in 12th
- Jose Antonio Rueda pushes his Red Bull KTM Ajo KTM RC4 to the 3rd best time in Moto3™ while Celestino Vietti satisfied the fan club with 10th in Moto2™ Q2
MotoGP gathered at another fast and spectacular racetrack for the second weekend in succession as the world championship moved from eastern Spain to the picturesque depths of Tuscany in Italy. For the 38th time Mugello staged a Grand Prix and brought Red Bull KTM back to the scene of their all-time top speed record of 366.1kmph, recorded by Brad Binder in 2023. For the seventh fixture of the current campaign, the South African and Jack Miller were accompanied by Pol Espargaro.
Friday dawned damp and cool and despite the threat of stormy conditions the track remained dry and typically challenging with the undulations, decent grip and many rapid changes of direction as well as long lean time. Binder and Miller almost made it through to Q2 directly: Binder’s best flying effort would have placed him in the top five but he just kissed the green track limits zone on the final corner and had the lap annulled. Jack was one of seventeen riders split by less than nine tenths of a second as he tried to refine his set-up. Amazingly Espargaro zipped along the vast main straight at Mugello with an evolved spec of the KTM RC16 and equaled Binder’s 2023 top speed figure!
