Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Pol Espargaro concluded the second day of action at the opening round in Qatar to finish in 10^th position after a spirited performance under the floodlights. The young Spaniard kicked off proceedings by finishing in 14th in the second practice, however, the 2013 Moto2 World Champion remained optimistic of improvement and focused on the FP3 session where he adjusted the setup of the Yamaha YZR-M1. Espargaro powered onwards and scored a best lap of 1’55.328 that left him only 0.506 from the leading rider, after cutting a full second from his yesterday's time in the intensely competitive field. His performance in the third practice session, sees him glide straight through to Qualifying 2 tomorrow, where he will fully intend to clinch a top qualifying placement for the first race of the year on Sunday.

On the other side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team garage, Bradley Smith rode determinedly and gave his all before completing the challenging day in 16th position. The young Briton, who reaches the milestone of competing in 150 Grand Prix’s in all classes this Sunday, opened the second day at the Losail International circuit by finishing in 9th in the second free practice. In the afternoon Smith continued to push, yet was unfortunate in not being able to improve on his time set earlier in the day, which left him in 16^th overall. Nevertheless, his best lap of 1’55.741 was just seven tenths from the top 5 and will see him compete in the Qualifying 1 session tomorrow. The 23 year old still remains positive and confident of seizing a strong result in the 22 lap race on Sunday.

"For sure, I can’t be completely happy as finishing in tenth is nothing to be thrilled about. However, maybe I could say that I'm satisfied in one respect as we are right behind the factory guys and also the gap to the leader is not that big. Moreover we still have some margin to improve as we are struggling with our rear grip, yet I'm confident that we can solve this issue tomorrow. In my opinion, it’s normal that we ended up in tenth in a session which turned out to be a qualification for us and also, my teammate who has always been fast at this track, is even further behind. I don't think we deserve the disadvantage we have because of the tyre allocation, but that's how it is so we just have to deal with it. Fortunately we managed to go straight to QP2 but for sure, it won't be easy at all to achieve a decent grid position tomorrow."

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"Of course, the end result today wasn’t what we planned at all. To be honest, we were going really well in the first two runs in FP3 and I felt confident on the old tyres at the beginning. Then on the second run, we tried the hard compound and I was one of the fastest riders on this type of tyre. However, we then put the new medium on at the end of the session but it didn’t work well and I couldn’t improve my lap time. Yet, I can’t be negative as the bike feels good and I am certain that if we make a few small modifications, we can improve tomorrow. Qualifying 1 will be tough, especially with the riders who will use the soft tyres, but I am convinced that it is still possible that we can do a good job. We have been competitive all weekend and we were just unlucky when it was time to do a time attack. These things happen, but I’m glad it was today and not tomorrow or Sunday. We’ll stay positive, try to improve in a few small areas and then prepare for a fast lap in qualifying."

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