Darryn Binder and John McPhee end #PortugueseGP race 20th and 23rd after starting from the pitlane

The PortugueseGP proved to be a difficult one for PETRONAS Sprinta Racing, with both Moto3 riders forced to start from the Portimão pitlane. Although Darryn Binder and John McPhee pushed hard during the race, the pair could only achieve 20th and 23rd respectively.

Binder found himself with additional work to do during the 21-lap Moto3 race, after being handed a qualifying penalty just before the race meaning he had to start from the pitlane. Despite the curveball, the South African battled hard to try and close the gap to the main pack. Although he made good progress at the beginning, and was able to join the tail end of the pack, Darryn was unable to maintain the speed and suffered with grip issues. Binder crossed the line 20th and now sits third in the championship with 36 points.

The PortugueseGP was always going to be a tough one for McPhee, who had to start the race from the pitlane with a ten second delay. Although the Scot was able to maintain a good pace and rhythm in the first half of the race, the pace of the riders in the main field, in addition to suffering from a lack of grip in the final laps, meant that he was unable to close the gap to the main field. At the end of the race, John was able to bring his Honda NSF250RW home in 23rd.

Binder and McPhee will now enjoy another short break before the Moto3 championship resumes at the end of the month, with the Gran Premio de España (30 April – 2 May).

Darryn Binder
20th (+33.374)

I had an alright weekend and felt strong in all the practice sessions and qualifying wasn’t too bad, I would have started from the second row. I feel like I’ve been handed a really hard penalty from qualifying yesterday, which meant I had to start from pitlane. It is what it is, but unfortunately in the race I didn’t have the pace. We need to look over everything and see what we can do to improve. I’m really sorry to the team for picking up the penalty and for the result today. Hopefully in Jerez we can be back to how we were in the first two races of the year.

John McPhee
23rd (+37.540)

Today we had nothing to lose and everything to gain, so we tried a few things throughout the weekend. In the end we gambled with the S tyre, just to see if it could be of any benefit in catching the riders up. Unfortunately it wasn’t the right choice as we struggled a lot with the tyre towards the end of the race. My rhythm was good, my pace was consistent, and I was lapping in the 1min 48secs alone for the first seven or eight laps, which was good. I was able to maintain my rhythm all race, but the size of the penalty made it too difficult to come back. I’m sorry to the team that we weren’t able to be fighting at the front today. We’ll take the experience and things we’ve learned from this weekend to Jerez, where hopefully we can start our season properly.