Hot conditions accompanied the MotoGP World Championship on day two of proceedings at the ninth round of the 2022 season in Catalunya again today, which delivered tricky conditions for Qualifying day.

Darryn Binder, who already found a decent feeling aboard his Yamaha YZR-M1 on day one, topped his personal best lap by 0.788 seconds in Free Practice three and thereby moved closer towards the front. In the all-important but very hot Qualifying he was just 0.290 seconds slower than in the morning, but landed in P23, only 0.302 seconds behind his teammate. The South African MotoGP rookie will line up in the eighth row tomorrow before the lights go out at 14:00 local time.

DARRYN BINDER

“I feel like it’s been a really positive day. I made a good step this morning at the beginning of FP3 and then unfortunately, at the end, I felt like I wasn’t able to capitalize from the soft tyre. Then again in FP4, I had a really good speed with the hard rear tyre, like in the race condition. I’m really happy with how that went, but unfortunately, Qualifying didn’t quite go to plan. I felt like I didn’t get the full potential out of the soft tyre that I was looking for. Overall, this weekend has been pretty good, we’ve been working very well, but unfortunately, I’ve just never managed to get what I was looking for in the Qualifying, so I’m a little bit disappointed with my starting position. In general, I have a pretty decent feeling and I’m ready for the race tomorrow. I know I can do a really good job.”