Bradley Smith - Photo Credit: Tech 3
Bradley Smith says the Tech 3 team have a lot of hard work ahead if they are to close the gap to the leading chassis-makers in Moto2. The Briton kept up his 100% point-scoring record in 2012 with twelfth in Catalunya yesterday but with 22 seconds separating him from the winner, Smith was disappointed with the outcome.
“Looking at the positives I have finished inside the points again and kept my place inside the top 10 in the Championship. But the gap to the front is still too big and we have to keep working hard to reduce that in the future races. I had a quite good start and put myself in a position to fight for the top 10 but the bike was nervous in the braking area at the beginning of the race and at the end I was not able to do the lap time of the group led by Corsi. I’m quite disappointed about that because I expected to fight for sixth place. We learned a lot once again and we will try and improve our situation to be more competitive at Silverstone, which is obviously a huge weekend for me being my home race.”
Stand-in teammate Jordi Torres finished one place outside the points in sixteenth and admitted his relative lack of Grand Prix experience cost him in the end.
“I’d said before the race that I have to make an aggressive start to stay with the fast guys because I am not used to competing in the World Championship. The first corners were quite tricky and a few riders touched me and I was afraid I was going to crash out. I just decided to fight as hard as possible and I really enjoyed it. After four laps the tyres started to drop and I had some problems to adapt to this situation, as I’m not used to it from the Spanish Championship. At the beginning it was a bit easier to stay with the guys like Smith, de Angelis and Corti because what I lost on the straight because of my weight I could recover it in the braking zone where I was aggressive. But it got more difficult as the grip continued to drop and I risked crashing out a few times, so I decided to slow down a little bit and finish the race. I’m not completely happy with the result because I wanted to be in the points but I am very happy with the work we did during the weekend. The Tech 3 Team is very professional and I learned a lot. I really enjoyed this experience and I want to stay a big thanks to the Team for this opportunity.”
Team Manager Herve Poncharal praised Torres for his contribution but hadn't lost sight of the Mistral 610s lack of competitiveness and hopes to provide Smith with a stronger package in future.
“We expected a little bit more from today’s race but at least Bradley and Jordi finished and we gained some more crucial information on the Mistral 610 machine. Bradley was in the points again and he never gave up, but clearly his potential is higher and we need to work together to try and be closer to the front. I want to thank Jordi also because he did a fantastic job in difficult circumstances. It is never easy jumping on a new bike against this level of competition but he quickly adapted to the Mistral 610 machine and he was very professional in his approach. He didn’t make any mistakes all weekend and he gave us a lot of feedback on the bike. It has been a pleasure working him and I think everybody in the Tech 3 Racing Team enjoyed the experience.”
