Bradley Smith had mixed feelings after qualifying for the German Grand Prix despite securing a third row start for tomorrow's race. The British rider was sitting second when he crashed at turn eight, leaving him helpless to prevent other riders bumping him down to ninth. Smith has been challenging the frontrunners all weekend though and remains confident of being in the podium mix whatever the weather throws up tomorrow.
“I’ve got mixed emotions because I missed a lot of track time at the end because of the crash but I am still on the third row and that means I have a chance of a good result tomorrow. Overtaking on this tight track is very difficult and any further back makes it very difficult to go with the leading group in the early laps. But I’m also disappointed because today was a great opportunity to be on pole position. I am sorry to my Tech 3 Racing crew because it was my mistake and we missed a great chance to be the fastest rider today. It can happen when you are pushing hard in tricky conditions like that and I am confident that in the wet or dry tomorrow I am going to be very competitive. Making a good start will be crucial to stay out of trouble at the tight first corner and hopefully we can be battling close to the podium again like in Assen last weekend.”
The man Smith trailed at the time of his crash was his Tech 3 teammate Xavier Simeon, who eventually matched his career best qualifying in fourth. The Belgian made a similar error to Smith at turn eight and Simeon believed it may have cost him a maiden Moto2 pole.
“That was a very difficult qualifying session because the track was changing all the time and it was making it hard to understand where the limit was. Nevertheless I was very fast right from the start and I had a very good feeling with the Mistral 610 machine. At the end of the session I put in a new rear tyre but didn’t feel comfortable with it, so I came back in for an old tyre with five minutes remaining and I felt I could push again with the same confidence as before. There was a dry line on the track and it looked like I might have been able to get pole position but I lost the rear at Turn 8. It was unfortunate to make that mistake because I am sure I would have been at least on the front row for the first time in my career. Fourth still equals my best ever grid position and with this track being so tight and hard to pass on, I have given myself a great chance of getting a positive result tomorrow.”
