Smith to lunge forward from the third row at Sepang

Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Bradley Smith will kick start his mission to finish as the leading satellite MotoGP bike in the penultimate round of the 2015 MotoGP season tomorrow from the third row of the grid. The Briton leapt on board his Yamaha YZR-M1 as the day began and quickly resumed his setup work with the team in FP3, whilst determined to lower his lap time further. Yet, the 24 year old finally completed the shootout in 12th, just over two tenths from the top ten, which meant that he would have to compete in Q1. Nevertheless, Smith remained resolute and met the opening qualifying 1 confident of progressing to the final practice. After rapidly getting up to speed, the Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider powered to a lap of 2’00.765 which saw him finish in second and able to comfortably pass through to QP2. When the session commenced, Smith went back out on track with a strong grid position his sole target. The Briton consistently improved and after powering onwards, he sped to a top time of 2’00.652 on his final lap out of seven which saw him clinch 9th position. For tomorrow’s race, Smith aims to fight through the field and end what will be a challenging Grand Prix at the front of the satellite MotoGP bike battle.

Meanwhile, Pol Espargaro will begin the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix from the fourth row of the grid and confidently seeks to fight his way to a top result aboard the Yamaha YZR-M1. The young Spaniard charged forward from the word go as soon as FP3 started and he continued his setup work in preparation for the race. After undertaking a total of 17 laps, Espargaro’s best time of 2’00.709 saw him finish in 10th and able to pass directly through to the QP2 session. Here, the 2013 Moto2 World Champion keenly began his qualifying quest as he sought to seize a solid grid position for the 20 lap sprint. As the clock counted down, Espargaro laid down a lap of 2’00.794 on his 5th but carried on his pace as he aimed to move further up the grid. However, despite his best efforts, this lap was his best as the session drew to a close and saw him only 0.142 from his teammate. The 24 year old now fully intends to undertake a rocket start and then he will then seek to charge through the field in order to fight as close as possible to the factory MotoGP bikes in the 17th round battle tomorrow.”

 Bradley Smith – Position : 9th Time : 2’00.652 Laps : 7 

“I have to say that today as a whole went much better than yesterday and the end result is quite satisfying. The team worked really hard last night to give me a good bike that I felt much more confident with, so we have to say that we definitely made some significant steps forward as we found the best direction to head towards for this circuit. Of course, running in QP1 was never part of the plan, but actually I am pleased that I did as it gave us a bit more time to make some final adjustments before Qualifying 2. In terms of lap times, we partly closed the gap to the Factory Yamaha riders which is a real positive. The pole time was very quick today and for sure, it was out of reach for me, yet when we compare our best lap to the other riders on the same bike, we were close enough. The most significant aspect about today’s result is that I will start on the same row of the grid as Dovizioso, who is my championship rival which means that I have a good chance of passing him on the run down to the turn one. We need to work a bit more on my rhythm in warm up, but I am confident about the race now as we definitely went in the right direction today. With a good start tomorrow, I am confident that I can get back into a position I want to be in and I will fight as much as possible in the 20 lap battle.”

Pol Espargaro – Position : 12th – Time : 2’00.794 Laps : 7 

“It was a disappointing qualifying session and even though we didn’t expect to be in the fight for the pole position, I felt that after FP4, we could have been a bit faster. However, our strategy as well as my feeling on the bike were not the best and the fact that I was only a few tenths faster than in FP3, shows that our potential was higher compared to what we achieved. Moreover, it was quite frustrating to ride my last lap behind Valentino and Ianonne, because I realised that there was a big difference between my bike and theirs, mainly in terms of power and acceleration. It’s really difficult to handle and also to accept as my ambitions are much higher than where we are at the moment, so I feel really frustrated. Anyway, we need to be positive and I can definitely say that we made a step forward at the end of FP3. Also later on in FP4, when we evaluated some different settings, I believe that we found something which increased my level of performance. With regards to tomorrow, I honestly don’t know what to expect. It will clearly be a really demanding race because we are experiencing one of the hardest conditions of my GP career but I will, of course, give my 100 percent.”

Source: Smith to lunge forward from the third row at Sepang