Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Bradley Smith made it four second row starts in as many consecutive races today after a superbly executed performance in qualifying. The British star began proceedings on day two by closing the FP3 session in 7^th position and was able to comfortably progress through to Q2 after continuing his efforts in adjusting the setup of the Yamaha YZR-M1. Smith and his Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team carried on their work together in the FP4 session ahead of QP2 which left the 24 year old rider confident for the qualifying assault. When the 15 minute shootout started, he bolted into action aboard the Yamaha YZR-M1. After building up his speed, Smith powered to a best time of 1'32.801 on his 6^th lap which, when the chequered flag fell, equalled a start on the rear of the second row tomorrow. In addition, this time saw him finish as the leading satellite rider. The Briton will now be seeking to have a strong start and fight as close possible to the leading factory MotoGP bikes in order to add to another positive collection of points to his world championship tally.

On the other hand, Pol Espargaro suffered misfortune after falling shortly after beginning the qualifying two session and will start from the fourth row of the grid tomorrow for the 13th round of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship. The Spaniard kicked off his qualifying day at the 4.2 kilometre circuit by producing a best time of 1'33.012 in this morning's practice which left him 9th and straight through to QP2 in the afternoon. Here the 24 year old focused and pulled out of the pit lane, determined to secure a solid grid position for the 28 lap sprint tomorrow. Espargaro completed a time of 1'33.222 on his first flying lap but whilst improving on the following run, he unfortunately fell at the 10^th corner of the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Unluckily, despite the bike still being in a good condition to ride, Espargaro and the marshals were not able to restart it so time ran out for the 2013 Moto2 World Champion. Yet, his best lap will see him begin the battle from the rear of the fourth row, plus his time was only four tenths back from his teammate. Nevertheless Espargaro, who is known for his excellent starts, will intend to launch forward tomorrow and jump through the pack and back into the fight for the top six.

“I have to be really pleased with the job that we undertook today as we reached our target of the second row again. That is really important here due to the layout of the circuit. Tomorrow, it will be crucial to get a good start and I'm actually on the inside of the track on the run into the first corner, which is a positive place to be. We improved the bike a lot in-between FP4 and qualifying and I know we can build on this even more in the morning's warm up, so I feel really optimistic about improving my feeling further in terms race pace. It's going to be a difficult GP mainly because it's so easy to lose the front and we have seen this happened to many riders so far this weekend. So it will be key to be very careful with both ends of the bike and the most important thing is that I must remain consistent and smooth. However, I'm truly confident with the YZR-M1 and with my tyre choice so I am ready to do battle for a strong finish.”

Profil 

Position : 12^th

"I can't say too much about the qualifying but obviously, right now I feel frustrated with what has happened, because it has been an unlucky day. Just like yesterday, I felt comfortable with the bike today and we had a good set up from the first free practice. We tried some modifications on the bike following the analysis we did last night and they worked more or less ok, although we still have some margin of improvement to make as we are not where I think we could be at a track like this, especially considering that I have felt strong from the word go. Afterwards, in the FP4, we had a technical issue with one bike, so I had to come back to the box and go out on the other one. Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to fix the bike and my team still needs to find out what was wrong. So, I had to face Q2 with just one bike and then the worst thing happened. I did one first lap and when I was in my second flying one I had a small crash. When I was falling, I already knew how stupid the crash was, so once I got up, I tried to start the bike again because it was just slightly damaged, but it was impossible. It's a real pity because we were doing a good job this weekend, plus I felt strong and able to have a good race. With this mishap I will have to start from the rear of the fourth row on the grid, so I will have to do really well in the beginning, but I still think I have a good pace which I need in order to achieve a solid result tomorrow and I hope I can show it. ”

Profil