German MotoGP: Bradley Smith vows to bounce back

Bradley Smith has vowed to bounce back to form in his home race at Donington Park this weekend after two crashes in the Sachsenring 125GP dented his world title hopes.

The 18-year-old managed crashed twice in the opening four laps yesterday, and with Aspar Aprilia team-mate Julian Simon romping to an easy win, Smith now trails the Spaniard by 30.5-points heading to the British GP this weekend.

The 27-lap race had started positively for Smith as he got the holeshot from the front row of the grid.

But he almost ran off the track at the first corner and as he struggled with a lack of temperature in his choice of hard front Dunlop tyre, he ran into the gravel at Turn 6.

Unable to keep it upright, Smith tumbled off his Aprilia. He remounted to try and salvage some points but in exactly the same corner on lap four, he was down again after a clash with Finnish wild card Eeki Kuparinen.

Smith, who had also crashed in the morning warm-up session, luckily escaped injury in all three incidents and he’s determined to make amends at Donington Park. He told MCN: “I’ve got to bounce back from this and not use this as much of a negative.

“At least there’s not time to dwell on it and I’m back at Donington in a few days to try and put it right. It’s just one of those things. It’s my first mistake in eight races, which is not a bad record but I chose the hard front tyre and it was quite cool.

“It is disappointing that I had such a good weekend end like this, but I think that the warm-up crash affected me.

“I don’t think that the front tyre had got up to temperature. That’s why I got the feeling that I was running off track at every corner.

“The first crash was a blow to morale, and the second was a hit from behind that I couldn’t do anything about. I thought the guy would have seen me but obviously he didn’t.

“I’m a bit upset but perhaps he wasn’t expecting anybody to pass him at this corner. Luckily I’m fit for Donington because to crash three times in one day and be unscathed is quite lucky.

“Sure it’s not the ideal preparations for Donington but like the team said, we move on and try and win this weekend. We just have to move on and concentrate on the next race in Donington.”

 

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