Brit reflects on a tricky weekend overcome at the Red Bull Ring
Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) is having a tough season in
2016 ahead of his move to the factory KTM team, but the Brit turned
around a tough Friday into a top ten in the race in Austria and beat
teammate Pol Espargaro over the line as the Tech 3 duo completed the top
ten. Despite disappointment at missing out on crossing the line as top
independent rider to compatriot Scott Redding (Octo Pramac Yakhnich),
Smith is nevertheless happy with the weekend.
Bradley Smith (P9): "Overall, I have to be happy
with the result and we really turned things around today. Having said
that, I am also a little bit disappointed because the top satellite
position was the aim, especially after the pace that we had in warm-up
and I knew that we had a good chance. I was lucky at the beginning of
the GP with all the jumps starts around me but I lost a large amount of
time on the opening lap and then there were quite a few mistakes by
other riders, which cost me. I was pleased that I managed to cut the gap
to Laverty and Redding and I believe that I was really strong in the
middle part of the Grand Prix. The only issue was that I put a lot of
stress on my tyres to close that deficit to those riders. As we weren’t
too sure about the fuel consumption, we had to play it safe and slightly
dial down some of the power, which meant that I wasn’t able to get
close enough to Redding to make a full attack. However, we already knew
it would be a challenging weekend, but from where we were on Friday to
where we are now, it’s clear to see that we’ve made a big step and I
have to say that I’m very proud."
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