Smith 2nd on the opening day

Posted on Mar 08, 2014 by Monster Yamaha Tech 3

Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team’s Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro continued their impressive pre-season today at the Losail Circuit, Qatar. This week’s test, in which only the Satellite and Open Class MotoGP riders are attending, marks the final testing session before the start of the MotoGP season on the 23rd of March.

British rider Bradley Smith’s tireless efforts, established himself as the 2nd quickest MotoGP rider today in Qatar. He completed 53 laps of the circuit, and sent a reminder to the top MotoGP riders of his intentions this season. Although the track was initially dirty and lacked traction, it later cleared and the grip improved. This allowed the young British rider to complete today’s session with a fastest lap of 1:55.639 which was 0.253 of a second off the leading time. 

The next testing session commences tomorrow at 16:00 until 23:00 at the Losail Circuit, Qatar (local time – GMT +3).

Bradley Smith- 1:55.639 – 2nd:
“Today was a good day. I am happy that the base setup worked immediately here, which means we did a good job in Sepang and so, we didn’t have to make many changes. The track condition was better than I expected and after an hour the track was in much better shape, which is positive as it means we can have a good test here. It was a bit frustrating to be fastest for nearly the whole day, and then getting passed so close to the end, but there are still two days to go. Tomorrow we will try bike 1 and bike 2 and make a few more changes. I am really happy with the setup as it is, but I want to make sure it is the right way, and that’s why we need to play with the geometry of the bike a little more. I will definitely do the race simulation on the last day, and possibly another one tomorrow too.”