Premier class rookie Darryn Binder launched off the Aragon MotoGP starting grid from P23 today and was in 18th quickly, but had to avoid another rider crashing, which made him lose some ground on the first lap. He came back inside the points scoring positions and was fighting hard to keep his speed. Yet, he had a few competitors passing him, but could eventually keep up to see the chequered flag in P18.

In just a few days’ time the entire MotoGP circus including the WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team is flying over to Japan for the start of a four-rounds overseas trip.

DARRYN BINDER

“The first lap was a little crazy with all the crashes, unfortunately Takaaki’s (Nakagami) bike was quite in the track and I got caught up on the wrong side of it and it cost me a little bit of time on the first lap. But after that, I had quite a good couple of laps chasing Pol (Espargaro) and then when the first little drop of the tyre came, I struggled to adapt to it but towards the end of the race I managed to kind of keep the same pace throughout and catch back up with Fabio (di Giannantonio) in the last lap. I feel like we’ve made a good step forward compared to Misano, and today I think the things we tried during the test had a little positives. I’m just glad to see the flag and happy with how the race went. I’m looking forward to try and keep improving and hopefully I can be among the points in Motegi.”