Monster Yamaha’s Bradley Smith found the MotoGP qualifying ‘tough’ and wasn’t able to get inside the top three quickest times, like he did during the free practice sessions yesterday at Silverstone.
Smith was ‘disappointed’ in the fact that he was unable to replicate the fast time set by Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Movistar Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, and tried in vain to lap a time in the 2’00’s. But the Englishman did set a 2’01.140 which placed him on the second row for the race on Sunday. But he was happy with his race distance on the tyres, and hopes to come good towards the latter half of the race.
He was also the fastest British rider, but today knew that the factory riders would up their game in qualifying. But overall Smith is content that he was able to out-pace the Ducati’s today.
“It was a tough day more than everything, especially in qualifying. In FP4 we worked really hard on trying to find a little bit better race pace, and unfortunately when I went into qualifying we improved one and half seconds and then we found a limit with the bike,” said Smith, at the circuit.
“I am happy with race distance, but a little bit disappointed that I was missing point three of a second during qualifying. It would be nice to nip under the 2’01 barrier because I thought that would have been possible.
“I knew the factory boys would have improved, I knew on Friday that my base setting is working everywhere we go and it is helping me get to the lap times straight away and we have a limit with our motorcycle which means we don’t improve on the second day - like we do on the first, which is unfortunate. I knew I could not hold on to third but I am on the second row and I have to be pleased with that. I stayed in front of the other two Brits and I am in front of the Ducati’s by a long way, and it is important to get a good start tomorrow”
Smith favoured the medium front and softer rear tyre, as he felt that over race distance the softer compound would give him more grip, where the harder compound would cause him to spin more on his YZR-M1.
Smith said: “Basically we went for a medium front and the softer of the rears. The hard one would potentially work but we went for the softer option and when the tyres start to drop you can get more grip with the softer option - with the hard compound you just spin more on the Yamaha. Calculated guess would say that we would stick with that.
“I ran the gamble and tried a different shock setting in FP4 and that gave me more grip on old tyres and less on new tyres, so the actual lap time and performance is going to come later so I have to think of the bigger pictures and a good start is critical.”
