The Qatar MotoGP was not short of surprises but Brad Binder's second plac🌸e for KTM was arguably as big a sho𝔉ck - some might say even bigger - than Enea Bastianini's debut victory for the Gresini Ducati team.

While Bastianini was a force to be reckoned with during testing, and the GP21 a winner of seven races last season, on paper KTM had the least impressive winter resu🎃lts of any manufacturer.

The RC16 only made one top eight appearance over fi🉐ve days in Sepang and  Mandalika, as the Austrian factory regrouped tec🍌hnically from a hit-and-miss 2021.

Add in the fact that Binder and♑ KTM had never finished higher than eighth at Lusail and few w💟ould have predicted the South African could cross the finish line just 0.346s from victory.

Eight-time world champion Marc Marquez kept close tabs on the performance of the orange machine until the South African made a late surge with six🌠 laps to go.

"It'🍸s the bike I understand the least," Marquez said of Binder's KTM. "I understand Bastianini, the way that he rides. But Binder was like… each lap was different.

"I mean one lap he was going in [to the corners] very fast, another lap 🐲he was going in slower but exiting very fast.

"So still KTM, particularly behind Binder, I didn't understand. But they have a good engine, he was stopping the bike a lot with the rear tyre also, and 💞;he was very fast at the end of the race."

Marquez went on to finish in fifth place, 4.099s behind Bastianini and 2.7s from Repsol Honda team-mate Pol Espargaro, who led much of the grandᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ prix before eventually completing the podium.

While the KTM remains something of a mystery, and the first race is "always special", Marquez has already seen enough to believe that Bastianini and Espargaro will&nb𒊎sp;be chaไmpionship contenders.

"The first race 𒈔is always special and particularly here𒉰 in Qatar," Marquez said. "It's a race track where we always see at some different results.

"Last year here Maverick and Quartararo were very fast [12th 𝓡and 9th on Sunday], Zarco was very fast and then in the season he ෴was not fast enough.

"But Iܫ believe th𒈔at I saw two guys today, which was Bastianini and Pol Espargaro, they were fast and they will be contenders for the championship."

Round two takes place in Mandalika next weekend, where E🌳spargaro was fastest in pre-season testing.