Brad Binder rues ‘couple of millimetres’ that denied him podium at Dutch MotoGP sprint race – ‘Didn’t even notice’

Brad Binder was left rueing misjudging the track by a “couple of millimetres” after he was cruelly denied a podium place at the Dutch MotoGP sprint race.

The Red Bull rider was handed a three-second penalty on the final lap for exceeding track limits by the tiniest of margins.

“I got back to the box and I said to my team, ‘what’s going on? What did I do?’ And they said I’d touched the green. And honestly, I was still 100% sure I hadn’t touched it once.

“But when I went up to the stewards, I could see where I’d touched. And unfortunately those couple of millimetres – I was just jumping over the tiniest little piece, but I didn’t even notice.

“It is what it is, the rules are the rules, and I’ll give it a bit more margin tomorrow.”

Marco Bezzecchi claimed his first sprint race victory at Assen and a first pole of the season, finishing ahead of Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia and Yamaha rider Quartararo.

Frenchman Quartararo couldn’t get past Binder in a thrilling battle for the final podium place, but benefitted from the penalty and admitted it was his best hope of a top-three finish.

“I think this is basically all we can do,” said Quartararo.

“If we start better, maybe we stay [at the front], at least in this track.

“Some tracks we can start really in front and it won’t matter. But here I started P4 and finished P4. [The penalty] was the only way for me to overtake Brad.

“We are struggling so much and if you see my pace from this morning, I was so fast. In the race I could not show it because I was not able to do my lines.”