Tech3 power on under the flood lights at Qatar

Posted on Mar 18, 2016 by Monster Yamaha Tech 3

​Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Bradley Smith faced the second day of action at the 2016 season opener today and rode at full speed as he pushed all the way to the end of FP3.

Smith gave his all throughout the day as he continued the tireless work in preparation for the 22 lap sprint on Sunday. The young Briton commenced the third free practice fully focused and when the chequered flag fell, his fastest time was only 0.029 back from his teammate. Nevertheless, Smith confidently awaits qualifying one tomorrow with the aim to join his teammate in the all important final qualifying session.

Bradley Smith: – Position: 12th –Time: 1'55.505 –Laps: 20
"Of course, I would have preferred to finish today inside the top ten, but the team did a good job and we are confident for tomorrow. To be honest, we struggled a bit in FP2, but then we made some changes and slowly in the third practice I started to feel more comfortable. In the first part of that session, I did a long run with the hard tyre and then switched over to the soft compound, and immediately I was quick. However, I unfortunately made a small mistake during braking into turn six which caused me to fall and it meant that I had to use my second bike with only nine minutes remaining. I actually felt a bit better on it, but we still need to improve and make some modifications in order to get the best out of the Yamaha in the fast corners, especially in sectors 3 and 4. This will be our aim for FP4 and we will try to gain a bit in those areas. I will have to go through QP1 so I need to focus on riding a strong lap there to be able to progress to qualifying 2 tomorrow.”