Monday, 22 April 2013

Bradley Smith is pleased to have notched up his first MotoGP™ race finish in Texas and, with it, his first four World Championship points thanks to 12^th position.

The English rookie has joined Monster Yamaha Tech 3 alongside compatriot Cal Crutchlow. In Qatar for the 2013 opener, he was highly disappointed to have crashed out of the race, but on this occasion the Oxford rider completed all 21 laps without issues.

“I am really happy to finish the race because what I learned over a full race distance was priceless,” Smith begins. “I ran the Hard front tyre on the advice of Bridgestone and - while it was definitely the right choice - it took me a few laps to understand how it was working.

“The last thing I needed was to push too hard and make another mistake like in Qatar, but the best thing about the race is that I got faster and faster. I was quicker than in qualifying on the penultimate lap of the race and that’s a sign of how much better I was riding the bike.

“I am learning more and more about the bike on each lap and I can go to Jerez now confident that I can be even more competitive; the goal will be to get closer to the top ten. Finally, I can’t praise my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team enough. The garage fire on Wednesday night really put everybody on the back foot, but we all rallied round and it’s nice to see both Cal and I finish in the points to reward their hard work.”

Smith’s MotoGP™ contract with Tech 3 was signed in 2011, as he elected to spend one more season in Moto2™ before stepping up to the top tier of the World Championship.