Tech 3 Racing Team rider Bradley Smith is confident he will be battling for his first top six finish of the 2012 Moto2 World Championship in Assen tomorrow after an encouraging qualifying performance this afternoon.
The British rider will start from inside the top 10 for the second race in a row after a best lap of 1.38.414 secured him eighth position in another closely contested Moto2 qualifying session.
Smith's growing confidence with the 2012 Mistral 610 machine was on display and his quickest pace was just over 0.1s away from the fourth best time and he is optimistic he can challenge for the top six in tomorrow's 24-lap race.
Smith has once again worked closely with his Tech 3 Racing crew to improve the performance of his Mistral 610 machine and after leading his home race and finishing seventh at Silverstone 12 days ago, the 21-year-old is looking to finish higher up the leaderboard tomorrow.
It was a difficult qualifying session for team-mate Xavier Simeon. The Belgian rider is still working his way back to full strength with left hand and foot injuries picked up in Le Mans not yet 100% recovered.
Simeon though was unfortunate to encounter slower riders each time he tried to push on fresh Dunlop rubber and he will start from 24th place on the grid. He clocked a best time of 1.39.302 but is confident without heavy traffic slowing his progress at the end of qualifying that he could have been further up the grid and his target i s to fight his way through for a top 15 finish.
Bradley Smith 8th 1.38.414 – 23 laps
“It has been a very positive weekend so far and we have improved the bike in every session and gone faster and faster. My feeling with the bike is getting better and better and we have definitely taken another step this weekend, so I am really happy about that. There is a bit of a gap to the top three but between fourth and tenth it is pretty close and it is going to be really important to get a good start. The first part of the track is pretty tight so I need to be aggressive like I was in Silverstone to pick up some places early on. It looks like it could be an exciting fight tomorrow and I am looking forward to it. It would be nice to be back inside the top six, which would be a step in the right direction and a reward for all the hard work my Tech 3 R acing has been putting in.”
Xavier Simeon 24th 1.39.302 – 24 laps
“The session was going quite well and I felt in a good rhythm and happy with my pace but at the end when I put in new tyres to push for a good grid position I came across a lot of traffic. There are a lot of bikes on track but in Moto2 some riders can be a little bit stupid because they ride slowly on the racing line and they don't care about who is approaching from behind. After I put the new tyres on I had one clear lap in my last eight and I am really disappointed I could not be higher up the grid because the bike was a lot better today. I don't think it was unrealistic to think I could have been in the top 10, but I kept getting blocked and now I am not even in the top 20. My pace is good enough to get into the points tomorrow and that will be the target because t oday we deserved a better result after the Tech 3 Racing Team gave me a good bike.”
Tech3 Racing Press Release
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