The combination of a challenging track and changing weather conditions made things difficult for LIQUI MOLY Husqvarna Intact GP Moto2 rider Darryn Binder on this mixed Saturday at the MotorLand Aragon circuit, which means that he will have a lot of work tomorrow from P19.

A solid start in P11 in Friday’s free practice session raised Darryn’s hopes that further improvements would lead to a start in Qualifying 2, but Alonso Lopez set a strong 1’50.989 in P1, which Binder lost 1.203s on, prompting the South African to put all his focus on Saturday morning’s practice. Unfortunately, a wet P2 session threw a spanner in the 26-year-old’s works and the former MotoGP rider was forced to start in Q1. There, Darryn was within the all-important top four at one point but was then pushed back to sixth place at the last second, which meant nineteenth place on the grid in row seven for race Sunday. Certainly not an easy task on the 5.08km long track in the hinterland of Aragon, but his unbroken motivation gives him hope of being able to catch up.

Darryn Binder
P6 (Q1) – 1’53.090 (+0.487)

“It was a pretty difficult day. Unfortunately, when we arrived this morning, we saw a wet track after it rained last night. This meant that conditions were mixed in Practice 2 with a wet track that was slow to dry. So, we couldn’t go out on slicks and try to improve the lap time to get a Q2 position. So, we had to go into Q1, where things didn’t go to plan. Unfortunately, the track conditions were still not the best, I didn’t have a good feeling to do a decent lap. That’s why we’ll start from P19 tomorrow. That means we have a lot of work ahead of us. Anyway, tomorrow is the race, and I will do my best to get as far forward as possible.”