Smith leaves Sepang positive after successful test

Posted on Feb 28, 2013 by Monster Yamaha Tech 3

Bradley Smith ended a successful three-day test at the Sepang International Circuit on a high note after he finished inside the top 10 on the final timesheets. 

Heavy rain that fell this morning gave the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team duo the chance to complete a handful of laps on Bridgestone's rain tyres, with Crutchlow completing nine and Smith seven laps before the track started to dry out in extreme heat. 

The morning rain had a clear impact on grip levels for the remainder of the final day, with both Crutchlow and Smith unable to better their pace from the second day's action in Malaysia. 

Smith completed an exhaustive testing schedule today, the 22-year-old building up his knowledge by using a range of different settings on his YZR-M1 machine to set a personal best time of 2.02.070. That time placed him 10th on today's timesheets and he managed to reduce the gap to the leading group to just over 1.7s.

Bradley was 10th overall at the conclusion of the second Sepang test courtesy of a best lap of 2.02.023 set on the only full dry day of the test yesterday. 

Bradley Smith 10th 2.02.314 – 64 laps:
“I leave this second test in Sepang positive because I know a lot more about the bike when I first got here. I sat in the garage when everybody was in time attack mode at the end and pushing for a fast lap on a new tyre. It is not that I didn't want to go for the lap time but we are just trying to go step-by-step at the moment and look at the bigger picture. I still don't believe that we have a base setting for me to ride but at least we have a direction of which way I prefer. Luckily for us it is towards the way Andrea Dovizioso went last year and that's positive because we have got a whole load of data and experience from working wit h him. This is only day two of really modifying the set-up of the bike, so in terms of development we still have a lot to do. I would say we are in a lot better position now than I was at the last test although we haven't gone faster. Now I am looking forward to working on the YZR-M1 at a different track when we go to Jerez for the final test.”