Binder Uses Valuable Track Time in Misano to Progress
Binder Uses Valuable Track Time in Misano to Progress
WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team’s rookie uses the two days test after the San Marino Grand Prix to spin laps and adapt further to the MotoGP bike.
Following a very intense and emotional weekend for the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team with Andrea Dovizioso’s retirement from his racing career in MotoGP, the squad has been back at the Misano World Circuit – Marco Simoncelli on Tuesday for two days of important testing ahead of the Aragon Grand Prix and the flyaway races, mainly with Darryn Binder learning more about his Yamaha YZR-M1.
The South African concluded Sunday’s race in P16, almost reaching the points and was just missing his decent and consistent pace in the final six laps. Therefore, the MotoGP rookie together with his crew was trying to find the reasons and mainly working on improving the second half of the race, wherefore he played with the electronics and settings in order to be more conservative with the tires throughout race distance.
Binder did a total of 133 laps in the course of the two days and improved his fastest time from the race weekend, which he set in Free Practice three, by 0.420 seconds to eventually assessed the test as a success.
Despite he retired from MotoGP racing last Sunday, Andrea Dovizioso was riding on Tuesday morning in Misano to assist Alpinestars in terms of product development. His participation in the test was confirmed before his decision to retire. The Italian did a total of 16 laps in the morning session, before he packed up and finally called it a conclusion.
Darryn Binder
WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team
“It’s been a good test in my eyes. We tried lots of little things like with the electronics, a bit different setup with the rear shock and the front fork, stuff like that, but overall, I feel we made positive small gains. I was able to be a lot more consistent and quicker than I was over the race weekend, which I was quite happy about. We only rode on the medium rear and the hard front on both days. I never really did a time attack, but overall, I was faster than last weekend and I’m happy with the steps we made. We did a couple of back checks to make sure we are still heading in the right direction. Everything we’ve tried has been positive, so I’m happy with that. Spinning a lot of laps on this bike can only benefit me at the end of the day. It’s always nice to get more laps under your belt.”
Wilco Zeelenberg
WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Racing Team, Team Manager
“Last Sunday was Andrea’s last race and he did a test on Tuesday morning for Alpinestars and we gave him the green light to do that on his MotoGP bike. With Darryn we continued our work after the races on Sunday. There have been some parts to try, also some settings to test, especially electronics, because we found out during the race it was quite fine until lap 21 and then the bike started to get loose because the grip drops and you have to control it. So, we tried to focus on that. Finally, he improved his lap times compared to the weekend, the grip level was quite good during this test, but everyone was really fast.”