The PortugueseGP proved to be a difficult one for PETRONAS Sprinta Racing, with both Moto3 riders forced to start from the Portimão pitlane. Although Darryn Binder and John McPhee pushed hard during the race, the pair could only achieve 20th and 23rd respectively.

Darryn found himself with additional work to do during the 21-lap Moto3 race, after being handed a qualifying penalty just before the race meaning he had to start from the pitlane. Despite the curveball, the South African battled hard to try and close the gap to the main pack. Although he made good progress at the beginning, and was able to join the tail end of the pack, Darryn was unable to maintain the speed and suffered with grip issues. Binder crossed the line 20th and now sits third in the championship with 36 points.

Darryn Binder
20th (+33.374)

I had an alright weekend and felt strong in all the practice sessions and qualifying wasn’t too bad, I would have started from the second row. I feel like I’ve been handed a really hard penalty from qualifying yesterday, which meant I had to start from pitlane. It is what it is, but unfortunately in the race I didn’t have the pace. We need to look over everything and see what we can do to improve. I’m really sorry to the team for picking up the penalty and for the result today. Hopefully in Jerez we can be back to how we were in the first two races of the year.