Brad Binder was in charge in Indonesia for the majority of Saturday testing until late shots fired dropped the Red Bull KTM to 11th.

Unable to join the final hour time attacks due to an issue with the RC16’s chain, Binder was nonetheless pleased with the work undertaken and the speed and confidence he’s finding with the KTM at Mandalika compared to last week’s struggles in Sepang.

“Well, I was quite fast yesterday afternoon, and quite fast this morning also,” Binder confirmed after the second day at the Pertamina Street Circuit. “I feel quite good with the bike. We're still in the stages where we're trying a whole load of different setups, and each exit I'm pretty much on a bit of a different bike.

“We did a couple of time attacks this morning then after that we just worked on the medium tyres trying a whole lot of different settings. We found some things that are a little bit positive and other things obviously that aren't good, but that's testing. Tomorrow the goal is to really combine it all and see where we really are because in the last run I didn't get to use my soft tyre. I only used one this morning and when I put it in this afternoon we had a small issue with the chain and I didn't get to do a time attack.

“That was a little bit difficult because we didn't get to really see where we are exactly, but yeah, the feeling’s there. I'm happy with the progress we've made and we just need to keep working tomorrow and trying to get to the point where we are as competitive as we can be and our tool is as sharp as it can be before Qatar.

“This morning I felt pretty good,” he continued. “At first exit already I improved the lap time from yesterday on used tyres so already then I realised the track is much better and that there was a long way to improve.

“When I did my time attack I was quite surprised, I did a really good lap time and it came relatively easily.

"We pretty much just focused on working with the medium after that and we tried a lot of different things. We did try some aero pieces but the one really positive thing about today is I know exactly which configuration I like and what works for us the best. From here on out I think the aero is going to be staying the same as the final one we've been trying and we can go from there and then really work on the setup. The aero is something that really, really changes the way the bike works and the weight on each wheel so that's something we need to still work on and try and find the best package possible.”

While the KTM is making progress, the threat from Ducati is mounting day by day, especially with Marini topping the times on day two.

“The reality is they're super fast over one lap,” Binder admitted. “It was hard last year to get into the Q2 because there's so many of them up front. I presume it will be the same this year so we just got to keep working at it and get ourselves amongst it.

“Honestly? Better than last year,” he said of KTM’s potential for this year. “After these tests, in Sepang, I left Sepang really not happy but the good thing was we understood why I was unhappy and what we had to do to fix it. When we got here we already made a good step forward from the beginning.

“Just playing with the setup we made the bike a lot more comfortable and gave me a lot more margin so I was happy about that. I think if I take how I'm feeling now compared to how I felt going into Qatar last year, this is ten times better.

“I think there's still a lot of room for us to improve but like I said, I just want to go out and do my best. I feel good on the bike, keep the positive feeling and just keep pushing and let's see, you never know what can happen.

“The only way we're really going to know is when it does come down to a proper qualifying but the one thing I can say that I feel this year compared to last is when we put in a new set of tyres. I can use the grip we have available and I feel a difference whereas last year many times we put in a tyre and okay I felt a bit more grip but I couldn't use it because it came with a lot of other negative points. So in general, I think the balance of our bike is quite different to last year and I think it will help us a lot, especially in the one lap pace, but also over race distance I think it will be a bit kinder on our tyres too. We are all going to just have to wait and see but I need to go sit with the guys and let's try make the best plan possible so we can have a good day tomorrow and go into Qatar ready.”

Binder’s main issue during the initial 2022 tests in Malaysia was rear grip on corner exit, something he appears to making headway with on Lombok.

“It's quite good with the soft tyre but the soft tyre is really soft here,” he explained. “With the medium I do still struggle with a bit of rear grip, I would like more but it's hard to say where we are exactly because I think the 's' is a super, super sticky tyre, which maybe hides things a little bit. In general, I think we might have touched the problem a little bit so let's see. When we know exactly the level of each rider on each different tyres, we can see exactly where we are but now, testing, when you put in different compound tyres at all different times of day it's so up and down that you never really have a clear indication of where you are. So let's see tomorrow.”