Rookie Smith enjoyed an outstanding return to action at the legendary Brickyard venue today and after impressing with 10th position in FP1, he shone again in the second 45-minute session.
Smith capitalised brilliantly on the improved track conditions to shave a massive 2.2s off his best time from this morning and a personal best of 1.40.240 moved him into eighth on the combined rankings.
Smith was just over 0.7s off the fastest pace and less than 0.2s behind nine-times World Champion Valentino Rossi’s factory YZR-M1 machine in sixth position.
Bradley Smith 8th 1.40.240 – 41 laps
“It is great to be back on my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine again and I definitely felt the benefit of a good summer break with some good training out there today. I feel quite comfortable on this track and I don’t really have too many issues. Our base setting is in the ballpark but we can always make improvements and I am confident we can take some steps tomorrow. We know the track is going to continually improve now for the rest of the weekend, so it will be a case of adapting as the conditions change. But to be eighth is a great start for me and hopefully I can maintain that tomorrow to ensure I go immediately into QP2.”
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Press Release
