WithU GRT RNF MotoE Team starts Austrian GP with mixed emotions

Posted on Aug 19, 2022 by WithU GRT RNF MotoE

The penultimate round of the FIM Enel MotoE World Cup 2022 started in rainy conditions at the Red Bull Ring in Austria today. For Free Practice two at lunchtime the track was dry again and also offered perfect conditions for Qualifying on Friday afternoon, which the WithU GRT RNF MotoE Team duo tried to use at their best.

Bradley Smith, who returned from injury just last time out in Assen, is still adapting to this year’s FIM Enel MotoE World bike, starting just his second round of the season. Although he had a crash at the end of FP1, he finished 11th in the wet first session. He then went way quicker in FP2, but concluded the Free Practice in P16, which meant that he needed to start in Q1 this afternoon. Thereby, although the Englishman is still missing track time, he went 0.764 seconds faster compared to FP2, landing in P8, which means he’ll have to start from row six.

Both races for MotoE class will be short sprints of six laps and are scheduled to start on Saturday at 16:25 local time and on Sunday at 15:30 in Austria.

Bradley Smith:
“The good thing is that I'm ok after this morning because crashing with those bikes like we saw with Finello and other couple of guys this year is quite scary, so I'm happy to be in one piece. I feel at least today we found a little better direction with the bike, especially regarding the amount of track time we had this year, but I'm still missing the same thing, I'm missing every weekend so far; I'm missing this feeling, the mechanical grip I had in 2019. Normally I'm a rider who is good on the brakes and for the moment it’s my weakest point. Starting from the back tomorrow makes my life harder but maybe I can find some overtaking possibilities. Anyway, we give it a good try tomorrow and we'll see what happens. 0.8 between FP2 and Q1 improvement, but we needed double to be competitive. Let's see how tomorrow goes.”