Binder: “Massive issue braking, nearly hit the guy in front”

The Red Bull KTM star later revealed he had been battling a scary braking issue throughout.

“I would brake earlier than the other guys and I felt like I was speeding up when they were stopping in front of me,” he said.

The cause of his troubles, Binder explained, was that the rear of his RC16 felt like it wasn’t slowing down, forcing him to pull ever harder on the front brake.

“I had a massive issue in braking. When I pulled the front brake I had no help from the rear and massive locking on the front,” he said. “I wasn’t killing speed.

“It was really difficult because I could not pass anybody like that and there were a couple of moments when I nearly hit the guy in front of me.

“So I needed to be really clever but even trying to manage things I still ended up crashing so not ideal.”

The South African, who had dropped from seventh on the grid to ninth, added: “I tried to be patient and to understand what was going on and if it would get better as the race went on, but I didn’t quite get that far!

“I ended up tucking the front about ten laps in.”

Binder, who comfortably retains his fourth place in the world championship, said he had battled rear locking on Saturday.

“The engine braking wasn’t working as well as we wanted it to [on Saturday], so we tried some things and it seemed OK in warm-up,” he said. “But when the track was an extra 20 degrees it seemed not to work at all!

“But anyway, it was a good learning day for us because clearly what we tried is not the way to fix this problem and moving forward I think we know which direction we ned to work in when the conditions change, like they do here.”

Team-mate Jack Miller finished as the top KTM in eighth place.