Bradley Smith took sixth in a thrilling San Marino Grand Prix to cap off another excellent weekend for the British youngster. Smith qualified on the second row and ran with the leading group throughout, eventually finishing on the tail of Scott Redding.
The 20 year old added that he had learnt a lot from following the top riders in the class and has set his sights on beating them before the end of the season.
“I suppose we have been consistent in the last couple of races as I qualified fourth in Indy and finished fourth and here I qualified sixth and finished sixth. It was great to be so close to the podium again and that was definitely the best bike we have had this year, so a big thanks to the Tech 3 Racing Team. We are lacking in some areas compared to the guys around me though a little bit. I needed a couple more tenths but at least I had a bike that I could run close to the leading group with. I learnt a lot racing behind those front guys and as a team we learnt a lot this weekend.”
“Hopefully the improvements we found with the rear of the bike here will also work in Aragón and we can move forward and finish the season strong. I am fifth in the Championship and I have more than 100 points, so there are so many things that I can be positive about and I am looking forward to the next race.”
Tech 3 Team Manager Herve Poncharal felt Smith cemented his status as one of the top riders in the intermediate class with his speed and maturity.
“The beginning of the race was not easy, so I have to give big congratulations to Bradley and his Tech 3 Racing crew. They were working incredibly hard to improve the Mistral 610 package all weekend and in the warm up we could see the improvements. We were always in the front group putting pressure constantly on the best riders in Moto2, so he did another great job. I got nervous as he closed the gap to Scott (Redding) but I think it was very wise in the end to settle for sixth position. I’m sure if he could have though he would have attacked for some home pride.”
“After a few difficult races it was good to back up the good result in Indy with another strong race. We are still very close to the top three in the Championship and that is our goal, but there are a lot of fast riders in Moto2. Thankfully we have one of them and Bradley has once again demonstrated how competitive the Mistral 610 machine is. We saw another fantastic Moto2 show today, so hopefully the new rules for MotoGP in the future will see the same spectacular action.”
