Tech 3 Racing Team rider Bradley Smith is optimistic he has the speed to challenge for a top six finish in tomorrow's Czech Republic Moto2 race at the Brno track.
The British rider, who confirmed he has signed a two-year contract move to MotoGP with the Monster Yamaha for 2013 and 2014 this morning, will start the 20-lap race from 15th position on the grid.
The 21-year-old was able to set a best time of 2.03.303 to finish less than 0.4s away from the top six despite not h aving found the ideal set-up with his Mistral 610 machine.
Belgian Xavier Simeon is also confident he can fight his way through into points-scoring contention from 21st on the grid. He posted a best time of 2.03.594 on his final flying lap but with the eighth fastest rider less than 0.5s ahead him on the grid, he is confident he can challenge for a top 10.
Bradley Smith - 15th - 2.03.303 min:
“Today obviously started in fantastic fashion for me with confirmation that I will be with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 MotoGP Team in 2013 and 2014. I already knew this from last September but it is nice for it to be confirmed. Unfortunately we couldn't build on that positive news on the track. For some reason we seemed to struggle a lot with entry grip in to the corner. We made some good steps during the practice and we improved our lap time by 0.6s during the qualifying but in this Championship it's not enough. We still need to find another 0.5s a lap and tonight we need to study the data in detail to find something to improve in this area. We do not know what the weather will do tomorrow with some people saying it will be a wet race. But starting from 15th it will be a tricky race in the dry or wet.”
Xavier Simeon - 21st - 2.03.594 min:
“I'm a little bit disappointed because I made quite a big mistake on the last lap and that was my best of the session. If I didn't nearly crash in the second sector I would have managed to be at least three of four tenths faster and this would have put me close to the top 10 and this would have been a good position to start. It will be a big battle tomorrow as the lap times are very close between a lot of riders. I really want to do a good race and get some points for the Tech 3 Racing Team as a reward for all their hard work and effort again this weekend.”
Tech 3 Racing Press Release
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