The South African rider qualified second and ran in the same position for much of Saturday's race, only dropping out of the podium fight when he was passed by eventual winner Johann Zarco on the penultimate lap.
Binder was closing in on Jorge Martin, who was the only frontrunner at Phillip Island to risk the soft rear tyre, when the sister Pramac Ducati of Zarco forced his way by at the right-hand hairpin of Turn 4 (Miller Corner), giving Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Di Giannantonio the chance to pass as well.
Binder went on to finish fourth ahead of Martin, continuing the strong form he has shown in particular since the introduction of KTM's carbon fibre chassis at Motegi.
"If you take where we were last season compared to now, the step is huge," said Binder. "We made a massive step forward, I felt so good on the bike.
"We had a really good qualifying, best qualifying I've ever had in MotoGP. It was super cool lining up with no one in front of you.
"I think we're not far off, we're super close [to Ducati]. Clearly, at the end they had a little bit more grip than we had, even though I nursed my tyre the whole way. They had a tiny bit extra.
"But anyway I think it's a little bit expected because we're always a bit harder on our tyres than some of our competitors. I know last year I had no tyre left with five laps to go and [this time] I made it to the end quite competitive."
Asked by Motorsport.com for his reaction to the pass by Zarco that cost him a podium chance, Binder replied: "It was just a bit of a surprise because I was on the qualifying line, let's say, and I was trying to catch Jorge who was coming towards us.
"I ended up losing a few positions there and it was difficult to make it back because all the guys were spreading across the track."
Binder conceded that it would have been impossible for the KTM to go the distance on the soft rear tyre, praising Martin for coming within a lap of victory on his fading rubber.
"I knew it was going to be almost impossible to hang with him at the beginning," he said. "He kept that insane rhythm up until maybe 10 laps to go where I saw it stabilised for the first time.
"He did a really good job, hats off to him for making the soft go so far. I think we would have struggled earlier."
