Britain’s Bradley Smith has bagged his first MotoGP front-row start at Qatar today and says that with the advantage of three days’ testing, he can get away from the front in tomorrow’s opening race.
Smith hasn’t had any of the problems with edge grip from the new Bridgestones while the works Movistar riders have done nothing but complain. However, Smith revealed that he began work on the new spec at Sepang test one and this is the difference between himself and the likes of Jorge Lorenzo.
“I don’t know what the other Yamaha riders are complaining so much about because we knew this was going to be the situation, Bridgestone made it very clear at the first test and on the last day of the first test at Sepang I gave back all my old tyres and started work with the new ones,” said Smith, speaking at Qatar.
“Of course, we have three days’ advantage here and maybe for the factory guys Australia wasn’t great for them because they got to ride on some tyres that weren’t necessarily these ones. The compound we have here is the same as in Sepang so I have got more information on that tyre than them.”
Smith had a whopping crash yesterday (click here) but says he used the information from that setup to find a compromise that enabled him to put in some fast times today.
“We learned a lot from the setting we had on the bike and were were able to put something together today that I was really happy with. Looking at FP4, also, we found something, especially in the final few laps and we were able to translate that to the new tyre as well.
“I was a little disappointed with the second tyre. Aleix waited a lot, then Marc waited, then I waited, and let the tyres cool down too much so I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t get a second go at it but happy to start from the front row.
“Looking at the laptimes and the pace of everyone it will be really important to get away at the start. The easiest thing to do is start well, get your head down and try to disappear. I know I can get a good start and feel good in the first laps with a full fuel load. The testing here has helped a lot and hopefully we can put that advantage to good use.”
