Smith inside the top three after day one in Austria

Posted on Aug 09, 2019 by One Energy Racing

After claiming a brilliant podium at the first ever MotoE World Cup race, Bradley Smith returned to action in Austria looking just as strong. The ONE Energy Racing rider was one of the outstanding competitors on Friday, finishing both free practice sessions amongst the top three and placing third overall.

Smith was on form from the get-go. In the first Free Practice session of the day, the Briton never dipped out of the top five. In the end, he would take second place with a time of 1min 35.938secs, just 72 thousandths off the top spot.

In FP2, Smith went out on track determined to take full advantage of the optimal asphalt condition and improve his time from the first session. On his fifth lap, the ONE Energy Racing rider stopped the clock in 1min 35.846secs, his best effort of the day and enough for third overall on Friday.

Tomorrow the MotoE riders will have a third Free Practice session in the morning, followed by E-Pole at 4pm local time.

Bradley Smith:
"Today went well overall. The most positive thing is that in terms of pace we are in much better shape than we were at Sachsenring. I felt very good from the first run onwards today. In the afternoon we experimented with our setup; We have improved in some areas, but in others we struggled. Luckily we have FP3 tomorrow to get back to the good feeling we had this morning and prepare ourselves for E-Pole in the afternoon. There are other riders who are very fast, but I'm convinced that we have a good enough package for a positive qualifying session."