In Moto2 qualifying, LIQUI MOLY Husqvarna Intact GP riders Darryn Binder and teammate Senna Agius fought a close battle for race Sundays grid positions. The South African will contest the 15th World Championship round of the year from 13th place in row five.

The Indonesia Grand Prix takes place this weekend on the picturesque island of Lombok. The venue is the ultra-modern 4.3 km Pertamina Mandalika Street Circuit, where things have been heating up since the first encounter in Moto2 free practice.

Darryn used the first few minutes on Friday to familiarize himself with the racetrack. But already in the first official practice session, the 26-year-old moved up from 19th to ninth place, which made him look forward to Saturday with confidence. In similarly hot conditions, the South African with starting number 15 dropped back to nineteenth place despite setting a better time than on Friday, which meant he had to make a short detour into Q1 before entering Q2 in third place. There he found himself in the middle of a tight pole battle and secured thirteenth place on the grid in row 5, just 0.412s behind pole setter Aron Canet.

Darryn Binder
P13 – 1’33.846 (+0.412)

“Lining up in 13th place on the grid for tomorrow, I’m pretty pleased with how qualifying went today. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get straight into Q2 this morning, so I had to pass Q1. However, in Q2 we decided to use only one tyre, so I only had one shot at the beginning. But towards the end, I was able to improve my time again and ended up in P13. I’m pretty happy with that. So, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race because I felt like I had a really good rhythm. Let’s see what we can achieve.”