MotoGP: Brad Binders rookie of the year season

Brad Binder stormed onto the MotoGP season in 2020 as the rookie of the year.

Brad Binder took the MotoGP rookie of the year award after an outstanding season which included a race win at Brno when he showed unbelievable pace, storming to a completely unexpected victory to the delight of many fans alike who have followed his incredible career from Moto3 and upward, or even before that when he was racing in Britain briefly.

Binder was never a rider before Moto3 who stuck out with Binder himself being surprised at being offered a full-time 125cc ride after his Rookies stint, thinking the dream was over, but talent prevailed and we saw him rise through the ranks into MotoGP.

His rookie season wasn’t all sunshine and roses, suffering various crashes and making rookie mistakes as many do, including crashing into past and future teammate Miguel Oliveira in Turn 1 at the Andalucian Grand Prix, then hitting Jack Miller at the Teruel GP, the nickname ‘Basher Binder’ is normally reserved for his brother Darryn and his Moto3 antics but Brad best be careful not to gain a MotoGP reputation similar to this.

Throughout his rookie season, he was able to consistently lap as fast as the guys leading the race, even in his MotoGP debut at Jerez his lap times were unbelievably quick, he has been able to adapt to the KTM RC16 in rocket speed, riding the bike as if it was a Moto2 bike which clearly worked for him.

Brad Binder’s Brno victory

This came to fruition at Brno when he was set loose on the Czech track, he had qualified in P7 and had only 6 riders to overtake, overtaking 5 of them with ease before taking his time to overtake Franco Morbidelli to take the race lead, from here Binder was able to clear off, consistently lapping fast and even setting the fastest lap of the race, exactly as he had done in his debut at Jerez, this, paired with the open track ahead of him enabled him to take an outstanding shock win, stunning literally every MotoGP fan sat there watching as it was completely unexpected by all.

Following this shock win, he did not score another MotoGP podium for the rest of the season, but was able to take some consistent race results with a second-best result of P4 in Austria and was able to take the rookie of the year title, scoring 13 more points than Alex Marquez, despite a crash at Portimao.

In the middle of the season, Binder majorly struggled to enter the top 5 before regaining his form once again at Valencia, if he can carry this momentum into 2021, once paired with Miguel Oliveira once again, KTM will be out to dominate with Oliveira a 2 x MotoGP winner and the pairing of Binder and Oliveira a ‘dream team’, working incredibly well with one another in the past.

Featured images – www.motogp.com