by Mark Appleton
Tech 3 Racing rider Bradley Smith maintained his 100% points-scoring record at the Catalunya circuit today.
After starting from 13th on the grid from a tough qualifying, the British rider spent the entire 23-lap race battling inside the top 15 group of riders.
“I had a quite good start and put myself in a position to fight for the top 10 but the bike was nervous in the braking area at the beginning of the race and at the end I was not able to do the lap time of the group led by Corsi.” said Smith
A superb overtake of Alex de Angelis on lap 21 meant Smith grabbed 11th position and has now scored points in all of the opening races of the season.
“Looking at the positives I have finished inside the points again and kept my place inside the top 10 in the Championship,” said a disappointed Smith. “But the gap to the front is still too big and we have to keep working hard to reduce that in the future races.
“We learned a lot once again and we will try and improve our situation to be more competitive at Silverstone, which is obviously a huge weekend for me being my home race.”
Replacement rider Jordi Torres, standing in for the injured Xavier Simeon, had a positive afternoon initially battling with his new team mate before dropping back to finish in the last points position.
“I’d said before the race that I have to make an aggressive start to stay with the fast guys because I am not used to competing in the World Championship,” explained Torres. “The first corners were quite tricky and a few riders touched me and I was afraid I was going to crash out. I just decided to fight as hard as possible and I really enjoyed it.
“After four laps the tyres started to drop and I had some problems to adapt to this situation, as I’m not used to it from the Spanish Championship. The race got more difficult as the grip continued to drop and I risked crashing out a few times, so I decided to slow down a little bit and finish the race.
“I’m completely happy with the result because I wanted to be in the points but I am very happy with the work we did during the weekend. The Tech 3 Team is very professional and I learned a lot. I really enjoyed this experience and I want to stay a big thanks to the Team for this opportunity.”
Team Manager Herve Poncharal was disappointed after the race. “We expected a little bit more from today’s race but at least Bradley and Jordi finished and we gained some more crucial information on the Mistral 610 machine.”
However the Frenchman was positive about the placement of Bradley Smith. “[He] was in the points again and he never gave up, but clearly his potential is higher and we need to work together to try and be closer to the front.
“I want to thank Jordi also because he did a fantastic job in difficult circumstances. It is never easy jumping on a new bike against this level of competition but he quickly adapted to the Mistral 610 machine and he was very professional in his approach. He didn’t make any mistakes all weekend and he gave us a lot of feedback on the bike. He qualified very close to the top 10 and it’s fantastic that we could help him to score his first World Championship points with us. It has been a pleasure working him and I think everybody in the Tech 3 Racing Team enjoyed the experience.”
