German MotoGP: Brave Brit Bradley Smith claims brilliant seventh at Sachsenring

Shrugging off the pain of broken bones in his left knee, foot and hand, British teenager Bradley Smith produced a heroic performance at the Sachsenring this afternoon in the opening 125 MotoGP qualifying session.

Just 15 days after he was struck at close to 100mph in first practice for the Dutch MotoGP in Assen, Bradley Smith was back on track today and claimed a place on the provisional second row of the grid.

He logged a 1:28.221, which was good enough for the seventh best time.

That was a dramatic improvement from this morning’s opening free practice session when he tentatively took to the track.

He clocked a 1:30.149 this morning that left him down in 20th place and over two seconds off the pace of fastest rider Sergio Gadea (Aprilia).

Provisional pole went to Hungarian Gabor Talmacsi (Aprilia) who posted a 1:26.930.

It was the only sub 1.27 lap as he comfortably beat Mattia Pasini (Aprilia) into second place.

Sandro Cortese and Sergio Gadea complete the all Aprilia provisional front row.

MotoGP 125 qualifying one results:

1 Gabor TALMACSI HUN APRILIA 1’26.930
2 Mattia PASINI ITA APRILIA 1’27.465
3 Sandro CORTESE GER APRILIA 1’27.819
4 Sergio GADEA SPA APRILIA 1’27.839
5 Hector FAUBEL SPA APRILIA 1’27.921
6 Lukas PESEK CZE DERBI 1’28.112
7 Bradley SMITH GBR HONDA 1’28.221
8 Michael RANSEDER AUT DERBI 1’28.231
9 Randy KRUMMENACHER SWI KTM 1’28.338
10 Tomoyoshi KOYAMA JPN KTM 1’28.443
11 Pol ESPARGARO SPA APRILIA 1’28.456
12 Simone CORSI ITA APRILIA 1’28.466
13 Andrea IANNONE ITA APRILIA 1’28.476
14 Stefan BRADL GER APRILIA 1’28.560
15 Roberto TAMBURINI ITA APRILIA 1’28.689
16 Joan OLIVE SPA APRILIA 1’28.789
17 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA HONDA 1’28.838
18 Pablo NIETO SPA APRILIA 1’29.039
19 Joey LITJENS NED HONDA 1’29.136
20 Esteve RABAT SPA HONDA 1’29.250
21 Stefano BIANCO ITA APRILIA 1’29.484
22 Robert MURESAN ROU DERBI 1’29.505
23 Raffaele DE ROSA ITA APRILIA 1’29.549
24 Simone GROTZKYJ ITA APRILIA 1’29.575
25 Nicolas TEROL SPA DERBI 1’29.785
26 Federico SANDI ITA APRILIA 1’29.906
27 Lorenzo ZANETTI ITA APRILIA 1’29.931
28 Hugo VAN DEN BERG NED APRILIA 1’30.139
29 Patrick UNGER GER APRILIA 1’30.180
30 Alexis MASBOU FRA HONDA 1’30.220
31 Dominique AEGERTER SWI APRILIA 1’30.280
32 Georg FROEHLICH GER HONDA 1’30.350
33 Dino LOMBARDI ITA HONDA 1’30.669
34 Daniel WEBB GBR HONDA 1’30.762
35 Eric HUEBSCH GER APRILIA 1’30.924
36 Steve BONSEY USA KTM 1’31.023
37 Sebastien ECKNER GER HONDA 1’32.176