Saturday in Portugal started nearly the way Friday has ended; with rain showers and cold temperatures. While the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve was still completely wet for Free Practice three this morning, the tarmac started to dry slightly during the FP4 session after lunch time. For Qualifying one the conditions have been mixed and therefore delivered a lot of tension and excitement.

MotoGP rookie Darryn Binder had a tough time to keep re-learning the Portuguese circuit aboard the big bike. He learned his lesson with a small fall in FP3, but at the same time already managed to improve his lap time and his feeling.

In the tricky Qualifying one, the South African stayed out with his rain tyres as well and did his personal fastest lap of the weekend with a 1:51.639, nearly three seconds faster than his best time yesterday. He will launch the race tomorrow at 13:00 local time (14:00 CET) from P22, which is his best starting position to date in his first year in the premier class.

DARRYN BINDER

“It’s been a very difficult day with tricky conditions. I felt like I improved a little bit in the wet this morning, but then unfortunately, I had a little crash. The Qualifying was drying up the track slowly, some guys put slicks on in the end. I stayed out on the wets to play it safe. Slowly, but surely I’m learning a lot on how the bike works in all the different conditions. I feel like I learned quite a bit in Qualifying today, but I’m a bit disappointed with the final result.”