Smith concludes his opening shake down

Posted on Jun 12, 2015 by Monster Yamaha Tech 3

Bradley Smith concluded the opening shake down at the Catalan Grand Prix in 14th position in the combined standings. The young British rider began the day by making the first alterations to his MotoGP bike with the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team and finished FP1 in 15th place.

As soon as free practice 2 began, Smith got straight to work and continued his relentless efforts in getting prepared for the 25 lap battle on Sunday, whilst completing a total of 21 laps around the circuit. This was the highest number reached in the MotoGP field and the young rider met the chequered flag in 13th with a best lap of 1’42.645. He now aims to make additional adjustments for his race setup tomorrow in preparation for the Monster Energy sponsored Catalunya Grand Prix on Sunday.

Bradley Smith: – Postion: 14th – Time: 1'42.645 – Laps: 42
"It was a slightly tricky opening to this round. This was due to the fact the track has a little less grip than in previous years, so we struggled a bit to get the optimum traction. However, we made a lot of setting changes in order to find a good direction to head towards tomorrow, which we now have, especially after I was able to check over both of the front and rear tyres today. At the end of the practice I focused more on getting a good rhythm with the soft tyre, instead of setting a hot lap time as I believe this compound will be the one for the race so I tried to remain in the 1’42’s consistently. Overall, I am pleased with the bike and now we just need to find a little bit of additional grip. If we achieve this, I believe we can have a strong showing and finish we were want to."