Pol Espargaro kick-started his round 2 campaign at the Circuit Of The Americas by delivering a solid performance to finish in 7^th overall on the opening day in Texas. The first practice began in difficult circumstances with a heavy downfall of rain as well as a red flag causing disruptions to the practice. Nevertheless, Espargaro powered onwards and completed FP1 in 7^th place with a best time of 2’20.983. The weather improved in the afternoon, which permitted the riders to revert to slick tyres and the 2014 rookie of the year continued to push as he set up his Yamaha YZR-M1 for the 21 lap sprint on Sunday. The end of the session saw Espargaro meet the chequered flag in 7^th with a best time of 2’05.840 and a performance that saw him under three tenths back from 4^th. The young Spaniard’s effort today leaves him optimistic of improving his pace in tomorrow’s free practice session before the all-important qualifying.

On the other side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team garage, Bradley Smith battled throughout the day as he attempted to assert himself as the leading satellite rider in Texas. The 23 year old completed the first session of practice in 6^th position in wet conditions at the Circuit Of The Americas and was confident of progressing in the afternoon. In FP2 the young Briton set a best lap time of 2’06.134, yet unfortunately suffered a fall in the following lap which prevented any chance of climbing up the rankings. Despite this, Smith completed the day in 10^th position with his time being only three tenths behind his teammate. Tomorrow the British rider will intend to bounce back and have a competitive qualifying session aboard his Yamaha YZR-M1 in view to Sunday’s race.  

"Overall, today was quite a positive start to the weekend and I am pleased with what we managed to achieve in the tricky conditions. This morning we had probably our first ever fully wet session in the MotoGP class and I’m happy to say that the feelings I had on the bike were really good. The only thing that was missing was a quick lap at the end of the session unfortunately, but I felt comfortable and my time was not so bad. In the dry, we decided to go with our base setting and I didn’t return to the pit box at all, so nothing was changed. For sure, there are many things which can be improved, but now we will look at the data and hopefully tomorrow the weather conditions will improve so that I will be able to as well. Altogether, the first day was good so I am looking forward to getting back out on the track."

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"Of course, it was a big shame to crash at the end of FP2 but it was the first fall of 2015, so we had to expect it at some point. At the time, I was running with a set up that was for the mixed weather conditions and there was a lot of extra stress uphill on the front, so I hit the limit in turn one and unfortunately fell. However, as soon as we have started running here, in both the wet and dry conditions, we have been fast. I feel good and everything is positive so far, plus it's great that the base setup is once again working well straight away, as it underlines the good job we have done prior to the season. I hope for clearer weather tomorrow as it’s been tough for all of the riders to deal with the conditions today. At the moment we are in the top ten which is the main thing plus we are close to the factory riders, so all in all, it was not a bad day."

Profil