Bradley Smith sets fastest MotoE time on second day of Valencia test
Posted on Jun 18, 2019 by One Energy Racing
One Energy Racing and rider Bradley Smith participated today in the second of the three-day test at the Spanish track, in order to prepare for the opening round of the new MotoE World Cup competition. The Briton, who missed the first day of the test due to his commitments in MotoGP, got back on his electric bike for the first time since March.
Tuesday's action at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit consisted of two 30-minute sessions - one in the morning and one in the afternoon - as well as a simulation of qualifying. In addition, the morning session saw all the riders in attendance make a practice race start together.
In the first session, the One Energy Racing rider clocked the fifth best time of the morning with a 1:41.189, set on the tenth of his 12 laps.
At 1pm local time the E Pole simulation took place, to try out the new qualifying format for the competition. In it, riders go out on track one-by-one to attempt to set the fastest time. Smith finished fourth, with a time of 1:41.517.
The second 30-minute session of the day was held in the afternoon, and it was in this run that Smith would achieve the fastest lap so far: 1:40.290 on the penultimate of his 9 attempts.
The One Energy Racing rider will not be able to attend the third and final day of the test on Wednesday, and thus his next experience in MotoE will be at the opening round of the year, at Sachsenring from July 5th-7th.
Bradley Smith:
"I felt really good. After almost three months away, it was nice to meet up with the team and work with them again. The bike felt the same as the last time we tried it. We had a very good base setup then, and we stuck with it here in Valencia. We also did our first race start practice, which was interesting since there is no noise from the bikes; it was silent and different from what we're used to! We tried out two different grid configurations and we will see which one is finally chosen for the safety of everybody involved. The E Pole simulation was somewhat strange; I think there are still small things to be improved with the qualifying system. I'm disapointed because tomorrow I can't be here for last test day, but I'm very happy to have finished first in today's sessions. We leave Valencia very satisfied and well prepared for the new season."