KTM star returns to happy place, champ’s doubts, Aussie’s ‘massive benefit’: Insider’s Guide

Brad Binder typically smiles when he arrives in Qatar, home to round four of the MotoGP season this weekend; the laconic South African is one of the sport’s more affable riders at any time, but particularly so at the Lusail International Circuit, where’s he’s made a habit of putting his KTM on the podium in his world championship career.

This year? That grin might be more of a grimace, with the 29-year-old on the verge of an unwanted milestone this weekend, one that reminds him that a year is a very long time in a sport that measures the gap between jubilation and frustration to the thousandth of a second.

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Binder took his second premier-class Qatar podium and 11th of his premier-class career when MotoGP last visited Doha; problem is, that was in March last year when he finished second to Ducati’s reigning world champion, Francesco Bagnaia.

Since then, MotoGP’s human metronome has kept on ticking, but the pulse is slowing down.

It’s been 21 Grands Prix since Binder last stood on a rostrum, equalling the longest gap between top-three results since his first and second podiums – both victories – when he won the third race of his rookie year in the Czech Republic in 2020 before winning a madcap rain-hit race in Austria the following season.

It’s a stat that shows how consistent Binder has been in the interim – last year was the second successive season that he’s finished as the best non-Ducati rider in the standings (fourth in 2023, fifth in ’24) – but also explains the frustration with KTM’s MotoGP project, which has stuttered to start 2025.

Binder is still the Austrian manufacturer’s leading rider in 2025, but he’s 11th overall with just 19 points after three rounds where he’s yet to qualify inside the top 10 or finish better than seventh; a year ago, Binder had 49 points after the first trio of events.

Young hotshot teammate Pedro Acosta (13th) has been visibly frustrated with KTM’s progress, with whispers of him wanting out growing louder by the week. Off-season race-winning signings Enea Bastianini (from Ducati) and Maverick Vinales (Aprilia) have stumbled out of the gate with the Tech3 sister squad, scrounging 22 points between them to sit further adrift.

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It’s a rider line-up of Grand Prix winners and, surely, a winner-to-be in Acosta; that the leading riders from Aprilia (Ai Ogura, sixth overall), Honda (Johann Zarco, seventh) and Yamaha (Binder’s former teammate, Jack Miller in 10th) are all ahead of KTM’s leading light is a story that’s worthy of monitoring.

After a financially-fraught off-season and an opening trio of races notable for what hasn’t been achieved, a return to a happier hunting ground might be precisely what Binder – if he can best deploy his aggressive opening laps in races and stubborn defensive riding from a decent qualifying position – needs to temporarily divert an increasingly hot spotlight.

KTM’s progress will be one of the sub-plots of MotoGP’s only night race this weekend, while the return of Aprilia’s world champion Jorge Martin from injury – and how that impacts a tight race for second place as Ducati continues to run rampant – will be the biggest topic of scrutiny in Doha, the Qatar GP shifting from its traditional calendar-opening slot to round four to accommodate Ramadan.

Here’s your Insider’s Guide to all the action from Lusail, with the 22-lap Grand Prix set for Monday at 3am (AEST).

SIMPLY FINISHING IS MARTIN’S FIRST GOAL

Martin’s return from a pair of pre-season crashes in February – one on track in Malaysia that fractured his right hand and right foot, another on a supermoto bike in Andorra that broke his left radius and scaphoid – was the biggest pre-race talking point in the Lusail paddock on Thursday, with the 27-year-old set to debut the number 1 plate he brought with him from Ducati for the first time in a race setting this weekend.

Martin passed a medical examination at the circuit earlier in the day to permitted to race, but played down initial expectations in the first stages of his return.

PIT TALK PODCAST: In the latest episode of Pit Talk, hosts Renita Vermeulen and Matt Clayton review a wild Americas GP that saw Francesco Bagnaia win for the first time in 2025, Marc Marquez controversially triggering an aborted start, and Jack Miller’s strong ride to fifth at COTA.

“I will take it session by session, day by day … I don’t know if I will be able even to finish the weekend,” he admitted in the pre-race press conference where he was flanked by Alex Marquez, Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia, the leading three riders in the championship standings.

“For me, just to do that will be a big success. It’s been a difficult two months, I’ve been working a lot to be here today.

“I don’t know what to expect, I don’t feel 100 per cent still. I have good strength, but still pain. So let’s see what the weekend brings and try to adapt a little bit more to the Aprilia.”

With Ducati riders having won the past 20 Grands Prix dating back to Texas in April 2024 – and occupying the first five places in the standings after three rounds – Martin is looking further afield at a time where he might be able to get into the mix and emerge from a crowded chasing pack where Honda, KTM, Aprilia and Yamaha are split by just eight points in the constructors’ championship.

“Now is not my moment, 100 per cent,” Martin, winner of the 2023 and 2024 sprint races in Lusail, said.

“I just need time to recover, to get used to the bike, then let’s see in 2-3 months [when] everything will be on point [and] if I can fight with these three riders [the Marquez brothers and Bagnaia].

“[It has been] big dominance from Ducati as we expected, but I was really looking into Aprilia and I feel the step that they did from last season is big.

“They are closer to Ducati, I feel the potential is high.”

AUSTIN CRASH ‘RESTARTS’ THE SEASON, SAYS MARQUEZ

Marc Marquez has described the Qatar weekend as effectively a hard reset for the 2025 campaign, after the six-time MotoGP world champion threw away his early-season advantage with a crash from the lead of the most recent Grand Prix in Austin, the non-score seeing him fall behind Gresini Ducati rider and younger sibling Alex Marquez by one point atop the standings.

Marquez has been dynamite in his first three weekends at the factory Ducati team before his spill – he won sprints in Thailand, Argentina and Austin and the Grands Prix in Buriram and Termas de Rio Hondo – but has a muted past in Qatar, his sole victory coming in his brilliant start to 2014 with Honda, where he won the first 10 Grands Prix of his first championship defence.

On Thursday, Marquez said his level of performance this weekend will be revealing for the rest of his season, where he is trying to win his first title since 2019.

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“It’s the first circuit where theoretically Alex and ‘Pecco’ [Bagnaia] are better than me, historically by the results,” the 32-year-old said, brushing off his Texas tumble that cost him 25 points.

“If I’m competitive here, it will be a very good sign for me. If not, I’ll try to work to improve.

“The good thing is that we crashed leading the race by two seconds and a half and I was riding in a very good way. I did a mistake but I know why, I slowed down too much on turn three and then I jumped in too early at turn four.

“The good thing is with that big mistake still we are second in the championship, just one point behind the leader, so here it looks like everything restarts.”

Bagnaia – the beneficiary of Marquez’s blunder to take his first win of the season and draw to within 12 points of the championship lead in a season where he’s had few answers for his teammate on track – doesn’t feel Marquez will be at a disadvantage this weekend, and spoke of the comeback of Martin, his title rival in head-to-head battles over the past two seasons.

“We know that we won because of Marc’s crash, he was gaining tenths [of a second] every lap,” he said of his victory in Texas.

“My potential was to finish second ... then he crashed, and the only objective was to win.

“Already last year [in Qatar] Marc was competitive here [with Gresini Ducati], so I expect that Marc and Alex are the two contenders. Marc will be so competitive here, even if maybe it’s not one of his favourite tracks.

“Jorge [Martin] doesn’t have to put pressure on himself … he doesn’t have to rush, just adapting, understanding and enjoying the race weekend.

“It will not be easy because a MotoGP bike is a beast and in this condition, maybe [he] will struggle a bit. But he has time enough to improve during the race weekend and the next races.”

Bagnaia, who won in Qatar last March, is one of six different riders to win the past six races in Doha, Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso (2018, 2019) the most recent repeat victor.

YAMAHA’S QATAR PEDIGREE A POSITIVE FOR MILLER

Jack Miller has pointed to Yamaha’s imposing record at Lusail as being a cause for optimism this weekend, the Australian arriving in Qatar off Yamaha’s best Grand Prix result since November 2023 when he finished fifth in Austin last time out.

Yamaha is the most successful manufacturer in the 23-year history of the race in Qatar – it has 10 wins shared among Valentino Rossi (four), Jorge Lorenzo (three), Vinales (two) and Fabio Quartararo (one) – and Miller feels the trademark agility of the YZR-M1 machine could be of benefit this weekend.

“I’m looking forward to this one, the Yamaha has historically been quite strong here,” Miller, 10th in the championship standings and the leader of Yamaha’s four riders, said on Thursday.

“With where we’re at with the bike, I think it can work really well around here and as we all know, this place is one of those ones where the track gets better day by day, lap by lap. It develops over the weekend, so hopefully we can get going with our base setting and not have to change too much.

“We’re only three races in [but] I’ve hit the ground running and I feel very comfortable on the bike, which is a massive benefit for me.

“I really enjoy having a front-end that feels stable and is doing what it’s supposed to do, but there’s a way there I can still improve

“[Factory Yamaha rider] Fabio [Quartararo] is smashing all of us with his confidence in the way he puts the bike in [to corners] and also controls the line … so there’s many areas I can still work on.”

Miller’s fast start to life at Yamaha – his fourth MotoGP manufacturer after stops at Honda (2015-17), Ducati (2018-22) and KTM (2023-24) – is in keeping with his tenure at Ducati, where he was on pole in his second start in 2018, and at KTM, where his sole GP podium in two seasons came just four races in at Jerez in Spain.

Asked why it typically takes him little time to get up to speed, Miller shrugged.

“Jack of all trades, master of none … that’s why I’ve never won the championship,” he joked.

“Good at everything, but not fantastic at anything … but I definitely feel I can adapt myself to different situations. I don’t know if that’s my upbringing from motocross – you’re able to adapt your riding style around all different kinds of bikes, and even when I hopped on a superbike in the past, it’s not been a massive jump.

“That’s the biggest thing, maybe … but I don’t know.”