Bradley Smith and Xavier Simeon scored the first double top 10 finish of 2012 for the Tech 3 Racing Team at the end of a hard fought Moto2 battle at a sun-drenched Sachsenring today.
Smith and Simeon made aggressive starts and were battling inside the top five in the early stages of a race run in the best conditions of a rain-hit weekend, with temperatures soaring to a physically demanding 27 degrees.
British rider Smith rode superbly in the first 10 laps to remain firmly in the hunt for his first podium finish of the season.
With little dry track time in practice and qualifying to find an ideal set-up with the Mistral 610 machine, Smith was unable to maintain his impressive early speed once he lost rear grip.
The 21-year-old produced a rousing effort to try and secure a second successive top six finish and put Italian rider Simone Corsi under immense pressure in the final laps. But with the tight and twisty Sachsenring layout making it difficult to overtake, Smith was less than 0.4s away from sixth at the end of the 29-lap encounter.
Simeon took full advantage of his fantastic qualifying performance, which had put him fourth on the grid, to fight for a career first Moto2 top six. A determined ride kept him inside the top six until lap 12 before the physical demands of the Sachsenring tr ack began to take a toll on Simeon's recovering left wrist.
The track is dominated by left-hand turns and the left wrist Simeon broke in Le Mans earlier in the season is still not at 100% strength. The Belgian rider though battled on superbly and he claimed a thoroughly deserved first top 10 finish of the season with eighth.
Bradley Smith 7th – 56 points
“I am really happy with the first part of the race because I was battling for the podium and that is where I should be. But the second half of the race wasn't so easy and it is clear we still have some work to do to improve the Mistral 610 machine. I had the same problem in the race that I had all weekend in the dry and that was a lack of rear grip. We tried a lot of things to improve it but I didn't have the drive out of the corner like the rest. It is a pity that I didn't quite finish in sixth because that would have been a decent outcome, but seventh still gives us something to build on. The Mistral 610 is getting better and that is clear because both myself and Xavier were able to finish inside the top 10, so that shows the brilliant work the team have been doing. Now we go to Mugello, which is one of my favourite tracks, and I'm hoping to have another great battle like last year when I was third.”
Xavier Simeon 8th – 17 points
“I am really happy to finish inside the top 10 because it was a very tough race. I was very fast in the early part of the race and it was a very good feeling for me to see the leading bunch in front of me. That was good for my confidence but later in the race I struggled quite a lot. I feel very tired now because this trac k is very physical, particularly for the left side of the body. My hand still hasn't fully recovered from the crash in Le Mans and with so many left turns here, it put extra stress on it than previous races. I feel shattered now but I was so determined to finish inside the top 10 that I never gave up and kept pushing at my maximum. I equalled my best every qualifying and best race result this weekend, so the Tech 3 Racing Team have done a fantastic job and hopefully we can continue this form in Mugello.”
Tech 3 Racing Press Release
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