The 22-year-old had quickly settled into a fast rhythm in front of a crowd of over 46,000 fans and a top eight finish on his Laguna Seca debut looked comfortably within his grasp.
Smith was sizing up where he could overtake Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso later in the race when he was denied a seventh successive top 10 finish by a small technical issue with his Monster Yamaha YZR-M1 machine at the end of lap eight.
Bradley Smith
“It is a shame that my race was ended by a technical problem today because my bike has been faultless all year. This can happen at any stage but unfortunately it happened in the race and now we will carry out a thorough investigation to find out what happened. Sometimes these things can happen and it was a shame because I was looking at finishing inside the top eight and that would have been a positive result. The race was going well and I was confident after being very strong in the warm-up because we made a good step with the bike. But then I had the problem and I have to accept that this is part of racing. The first half of the season has been very enjoyable and I have learned so much. I am feeling I am making big progress and now the summer break gives me the opportunity to rest my recovering left wrist and I can focus on coming back much stronger physically in Indianapolis.”
Monster Yamaha Tech3 Press Release
