Smith was less than 0.2s away from continuing his outstanding run of top 10 finishes in his rookie premier class campaign. Locked in a fight for long periods with Andrea Dovizioso, Nicky Hayden and Michele Pirro, Smith almost overhauled the latter with a tremendous last lap attack.
Smith set his best lap of the race on the final lap but just couldn’t find a way to make a clean pass on Pirro and he had to settle for 11th. The consolation though was the 22-year-old moved back into 10th place in the World Championship standings having joined Aleix Espargaro on 71-points.
Bradley Smith
“The race pretty much panned out as I’d anticipated and I thought I’d stay close and race the Ducatis. I got an amazing start and that gave me a great opportunity to be in a battle but I just didn’t have the pace throughout. I wasn’t as fast as I’d hoped and again it was difficult at the start of the race on a full fuel load. But we have learned a lot all weekend and particularly in the race and now I am looking forward to tomorrow’s test where we can try a few things to improve our package. Our setting right now is pretty good but I can improve my riding position. I don’t think we are far away but small details can make a big difference when it comes to the race.”
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Press Release
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