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South African Brad Binder was met with an epic achievement at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez on Saturday, defeating Francesco Bagnaia to win his second MotoGP Sprint race of the season.

Also read: Brad Binder is first South African to win Moto Grand Prix

All three Red Bull Factory KTM riders produced sizzling pace in what were the hottest track temperatures of the season so far with KTM colleague, Australian Jack Miller also landing a spot on the podium.

Binder and Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia who had finished outside the top ten in practice were forced to ride in the opening qualifying earlier in the day after Spanish Aleix Espargaro crashed his Aprilia on lap six of practice.

Both riders managed to make the most of their second chances by grabbing places in the second row in the last qualifying session.

Starting from pole for the first time since Argentina last season, Espargaro made a good start but was passed by the fast-starting duo of Jack Miller and Brad Binder.

Espargaro then lost out to Bagnaia for third place but not before a massive pileup at turn two involving championship leader Marco Bezzecchi, Franco Morbidelli and Alex Marquez resulted in a restart.

For a second attempt at getting their Tissot Sprint off to the ideal start, the riders lined up on the grid. Binder exploded into the lead on the KTMs once more, and Miller managed to narrow the gap between himself and Espargaro at the first turn to secure second place.

The riders sped into the Angel Nieto curve and Martin showed that he meant business by launching his Prima Pramac Racing Ducati up the inside of Miller to steal second from the Australian.

With two laps to go in the now 11-lap race, Binder had applied pressure up front and extended his lead over the riders scuffling for position behind. Binder went on to win the Sprint race in spectacular fashion, finishing with a lead of 0.428 seconds.

Bagnaia seized second place after Miller ran slightly wide on the final lap. Jorge Martin and Miguel Oliveira were fourth and fifth with wild-card Dani Pedrosa taking sixth making it three KTMs in the top six.

The main race in Jerez starts at 3pm on Sunday.

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Picture: Getty Images

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