The MotoGP Championship title got interesting post Argentina race

Thirty-eight points is a decent enough haul for three MotoGP races, but it’s not one that screams title-contending form – it is, after all, one point fewer than what is generated by a trio of fourth-place finishes.

Yet in a season where all the major pre-season favourites have all floundered to various degrees and the three races’ podiums have been filled by different riders, 38 points is currently good enough for second place for Brad Binder – and it’s quite easy to argue that he should probably be leading the championship.

Binder’s 2021 yielded a fairly impressive 151 points and sixth place in the standings, but it was a position bellied by his super-low retirement rate and a freaky – if self-evidently super-brave – win on slicks in the wet at the Red Bull Ring. He was never a factor in the title race, which was not an indictment on the South African then-sophomore because his KTM RC16 was not the bike to have for most of the season.

At the same time, it was also clear that there was something of an Achilles’ heel to sort out – subpar practice and qualifying form, relative not just to the field but to the other KTM riders, which almost always left him with a lot of work to do on Sunday.

It happened because Binder accidentally upshifted while braking for a corner on his decisive final lap in Q2. Had that error not crept in – had he simply matched his previous efforts in the relevant sector – the lap would’ve been good enough for sixth or seventh. And chances are good he would’ve been higher on the grid still given the rest of that lap was a significant improvement.

This made the race more complicated than it needed to be. “I made a big mistake in qualifying, which was clear, which I think really hurt me today because it wasn’t easy to try and get through the field,” Binder said after last Sunday’s race.

So, Termas almost certainly represented some points left on the table. The same – but on that occasion through no fault of Binder’s – can be said for Mandalika, where a ride height device stuck “completely down” for the whole race meant he couldn’t fight for more than an eighth place.

“The reality is, I think we’ve had a couple more difficult weekends than what we should have, or what I think we could have. And we’re still doing quite good.

“The big thing for me at the moment is I just really want to stay focused, to take racing one weekend at a time. And if we manage that, I’m confident that at the end of the year we can be in a strong pace and at least be fighting amongst the top.”