MotoGP Qatar, Day 2: Bradley Smith “I'm very happy, getting into the top 10 was one of my goals”

Bradley Smith he closed the second testing session with the 9th time, 8 tenths from the top. The Briton therefore manages to reach the top-10, thus entering among the drivers who will start directly from Q2 tomorrow, the session where the top positions on the starting grid will be decided. Further satisfaction for the Tech3 team rookie also comes from the fact that today he finished ahead of three official bikes, the two Ducatis of the Pramac team and Bradl's Honda, ahead by 1 tenth.

“I'm really very happy because one of my biggest goals was to be in the top 10 tonight and thus go directly to the second round of testing tomorrow – Bradley Smith said – I therefore achieved an excellent result and I am very proud because it was not easy. I found myself over a second in the last session but then I finished just 8 tenths behind the leader and it's a fantastic result for me. I didn't immediately realize how hard it was to push the bike at such a speed and how tiring it was to ride with such intensity throughout the entire track.. Credit to the other guys who ran at a consistently fast pace throughout the track because it's incredibly tough and I'll have to improve myself in the future. My Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team did a terrific job tonight. They prepared a bike for me that gave me a lot of confidence and was able to go faster than I went during the last session. I'm only less than 0,5 second behind Valentino and that makes me very happy. There is still a lot of work to do, but I am sincerely happy to be in the top 10."