Smith heads stateside ready for COTA thriller

Posted on Apr 07, 2015 by Monster Yamaha Tech 3

Fresh from competing in the intense season opener a fortnight ago, the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team duo Pol Espargaro and Bradley Smith head to the Circuit of the America's prepared for round two of the 2015 MotoGP world Championship this weekend. The anti clockwise 5.5 kilometre long Texan circuit impressively has nearly 41 metres of elevation change on the pit straight and will host its third MotoGP race since its introduction to the calendar in 2013.

Having finished in 5th position in last year's GP in Texas, Bradley Smith heads to the south west optimistic and confident of being able to follow up his hard fought 8th place finish at Qatar where he was a blink of an eye behind the fastest satellite bike.

Bradley Smith: - Championship: 8th: - Points: 8
"'Now it's time to head across the Atlantic to Texas which is a special race and certainly an event that everyone looks forward to, so I can't wait to jump on the Yamaha and get going. I like the track with its good mixture of tight and meandering corners plus the big climb on the pit straight is awesome to experience! I scored a good result here last year in which I finished in 5th as well as being the leading Yamaha, plus after the good start to the season which we had in Qatar, I'm feeling confident. To complete the Qatar race only half a second back from Cal was encouraging, albeit a little annoying as I was so close to being the fastest satellite MotoGP rider. Nevertheless, I'm optimistic that we will be fighting in that position again on Sunday and I am ready to hit Texas at full speed."

Hervé Poncharal - Team Manager
"The season is well and truly underway and next up is the always entertaining race at the fantastic Circuit Of The America's. The facilities are superb and the track can hold up to 120,000 fans so we hope to see many of them this weekend. My expectations for the race on Sunday remain similar to what we hoped for and also achieved in Qatar. Everybody can see how tight the field is this year and the entire grid is much closer together now and super competitive. This is great for the fans although it makes things a bit more difficult for us. Nevertheless, both guys did a really good job last time and for them to finish just thirteen seconds back from the leader was impressive. Therefore, we expect a similar result here in the 21 lap sprint, especially after the strong finishes that both of them had last year."