Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder was denied a promising qualifying at Assen after stability issues stunted his recent positive form, lining him up in 21st ahead of Sunday’s Dutch GP. 

A poorly timed yellow flag also disrupted the South African’s rhythm with his RC16 as Marc Marquez crashed out of the opening qualifying session, leaving Binder on the edge of the seventh row for tomorrow’s 26-lap race. 

“A really difficult FP4 and qualifying, even if we did do a lot of laps and worked hard to find our way,” Binder said on Saturday afternoon. 

“I had a lot of headshake and many times I had to close the throttle down the straight,” he continued. 

“We thought it was the S rear tyre but when I went into qualifying I had that same issue again, and another problem that was making life more difficult. There was not really too much I could do, to be fair, so I tried my best. 

“The last lap was the only lap I managed to get through the first two sectors clean, and then there was a yellow flag in the third. So I couldn’t even complete one good lap and that’s why we’re 21st. That's disappointing because the lap time I did in qualifying, I feel like I can do with one hand behind my back. In general, it was a bit difficult today but it is what it is.

“I actually feel quite good. I think we are not in a bad place. It's just in FP4 we had issues and then we carried the same issues into qualifying, so, therefore, two terrible sessions in a row. I think we all expected more but there's certain things today that were out of my control. So, let's try again tomorrow.

“I want to come back the whole way, but I think we need to be realistic. I think a top-10 would be a good result tomorrow. It will have to be a hell of a fightback!” he concluded positively.