KTM’s Brad Binder was back at the sharp end for Friday practice at Mugello this afternoon, with the South African sitting fifth in the standings and third in the speed traps. 

Rapid progress made with the new chassis, originally tested at Jerez, and the new partnership with ETS Racing Fuels placed the RC16’s firmly in contention as Binder navigated the flowing Tuscan layout for the first time on premier class machinery. 

“Today was good” Binder exclaimed from the Mugello paddock.

“This morning, it was my first time I'd ever been to Mugello on the GP bike so it took me a while to find my feet and just to figure out where to go. It’s a little bit different to how I remembered in Moto2 - the straight is quite a bit quicker! Turn one's a lot more on the limit to find the good marker, but other than that, I'm really happy with the way the first day has gone. I really want to just take it one lap at a time and let's see how we get on tomorrow.

“We have a new frame, that we tested for the first time in Jerez - the goal for this frame was just to try and help us line the bike up a little bit better to get out of the corners better, and here in Mugello it seems to be working well.

“As it always is when you're testing something new, there's always some negatives and some positives, but in this case I'm happy with the positives we have, and I think it would be more important for us to keep working on the new frame [across the weekend] to try and make everything work perfectly.

“I think it's really clear that its not only the riders who don't enjoy not being up front, obviously KTM want to be there too, so the amount of effort they put in, as always, is huge. Normally when they bring us things, it's almost always positive. So, it's really good, I’m really happy about that.

“So far I think that this new frame gives you a little bit more feeling from the front, which is always going to help you, especially when things are a little bit difficult. I noticed with this frame it was easier to take your feeling and give you a good idea of what direction you need to work in. So that was one positive point.”

While Mugello is renown, in recent years at least, for being a Ducati track, and with the top speeds repeatedly coming from the Bologna machines, the Mugello record is anticipated to be broken this weekend once again, as in Qatar, by the Desmosedici GP 21. The KTM’s however, seem to be putting up their own fight on the speed front, with only Michelle Pirro outperforming both Miguel Oliveira and Binder in Friday’s speed charts. 

“For sure, the chassis does help [with the top speed] just slightly, only because it's allowing us to line the bike up on the exit of the corners a little bit better, so that's great but more so than that, we got some new fuel this weekend, and this has given us a little bit of extra speed.”

Returning to set-up and tyre allocation, Binder continued: 

“I used the hard rear this morning, and the feeling was quite good with it. This morning we used the softest option front tyre, just to try and save for the rest of the weekend, and it was clear that that was too weak. After that, this afternoon, on the medium/mediums, everything was quite okay. We tried the hard front this afternoon, in the last exit, just to see - as if we didn't try it today, we probably wouldn't have tried it over the weekend - and the feeling was quite good with it. A little bit different, but it definitely offers a little bit more support, but a little bit less grip on the edge of the tyre.”

But looking towards the choice for the race, the South African admitted “I haven't got a clue! I'm gonna have to speak to the team and they will give me all the information we need to try and make the decision.”