So far, the Qatar Grand Prix has provided the LIQUI MOLY Husqvarna Intact GP Team’s Moto2 squad with one or two surprises. Darryn Binder, who is still suffering from an injury, showed a promising pace on his way to the seventh row of the grid.

A week after his horror crash in Malaysia, Darryn was back in the saddle of his Kalex bike on time for P1 after being cleared for the start. Even though he is not yet feeling fully fit, the South African managed to fight his way back into the race action in tenth place in the first practice session.

Over the course of the three practices, he was able to find a solid rhythm, which gives the 25-year-old confidence for the 18-lap race on Sunday, despite its expected to be extremely exhausting for Darryn. The Moto2 rookie only just missed out on making it out of Q1, which meant that his 20th grid position on row 7 for the 19th race of the season was final.

Darryn Binder
P6 (Q1) – 1’58.211 (+0.643)

“I’m happy to be back on the bike, even if I’m a bit disappointed with the outcome of Q1 because I took a big step from practice 3 to qualifying now. But the most important thing is that I can ride, even if I don’t feel 100 percent yet. But I’m trying my best to put that behind me and just do my job. I think we have a really good pace for the race because I felt like I had a good rhythm all weekend. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find that one really strong lap, even though I’ve made this nice step now. I’m ready for tomorrow, even though it’s going to be a long, hard race for me because my body doesn’t feel 100 percent fit. Nevertheless, I will do what I can tomorrow.”