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Moto2's Brad Binder says he's been promised a KTM MotoGP test

Brad Binder has revealed he was promised a MotoGP test by KTM after his first Moto2 victory last year, and is still waiting for it to be honoured.

Binder won the 2016 Moto3 title with the Ajo KTM squad in his second season at the team, and then moved into Moto2 with it.

The 23-year-old South African won three Moto2 races last year and stays on at Ajo for 2019, but is also eagerly awaiting the MotoGP test he said was the result of a bet with KTM motorsport boss Pit Beirer.

"I had a bet going with Pit that as soon as I win a Moto2 race I get to ride the MotoGP bike, from last season," Binder told Autosport. "I'm waiting for my ride.

"I'm really looking forward to it, I just want to go flat out down the straights and come into the pits, I just want to feel the power of the big bike."

Binder wants to graduate to MotoGP in 2020, but with factory KTM riders Pol Espargaro and Johann Zarco as well as Tech3 KTM newcomer Miguel Oliveira all signing two-year contracts last season, Binder's sole chance to be on a KTM MotoGP bike would be in place of Hafizh Syahrin at Tech3.

"You never know, if you're winning for sure you'll get opportunities to go up," he said. "If things go the way I planned on, maybe I will be in MotoGP next year.

"It sounds like a better plan to stay another year in Moto2 but at the end of the day, should that be the case, we're just going to have to take full advantage of whatever we might have on the table."

Moto2 will make one of its biggest technical changes of recent years in 2019 as it adopts a new Triumph engine, which replace the old Honda units.

Binder ended the recent Jerez winter test down in 13th, albeit the best of the KTM riders, and admitted that his team had not got off to the best of starts with the new engine.

"It's really different, the bike has a lot more torque, the handling characteristics are much different," he said.

"The first test wasn't really positive for us but at the end of the day we found out what point we needed to improve. The general balance of the bike we needed to work on a little bit.

"At the test it was quite difficult for us, I was the first KTM in 13th place and I finished the [2018] championship in third.

"We've got a little bit of work to do but the important thing is we knew exactly what we needed to change and it's been done."

Binder's 2019 team-mate will be reigning Moto3 champion Jorge Martin, who replaces Oliveira at Ajo.

Zdroj: autosport.com