British MotoGP: Bradley Smith aims to stop Julian Simon’s domination

Bradley Smith is looking to end Aspar Aprilia team-mate Julian Simon’s recent domination to boost his 125GP world title aspirations at Donington Park this weekend.

Spaniard Simon arrives in Leicestershire this weekend in red-hot form and has outscored Smith by a massive 40-points in the last five races.

And Smith is aware that he must try and break Simon’s current stranglehold on the world championship, with the Oxfordshire rider’s disastrous German GP last weekend cutting him 30-points adrift of the series lead.

Smith, who was won two races in 2009 but is chasing his first podium on home soil this weekend, told MCN: “Julian at the moment is on fire.

“Whether it’s dry or wet or different settings, right from the word go he is unbelievable and he is going to take some beating.

“We’ve got to comeback and try and give him some competition because he won easily last weekend. I’ve got to be the one pressuring him into a mistake.

“Julian is going very fast at the moment and for all the 125 riders he’s the man to beat and everyone is struggling to keep up with his pace and his consistency.

“But I’ve been the closest rider to him and I’ve matched his pace for most of the season, so I’m sure I can do the same again at Donington.”

mith has vowed to bounce back from his Sachsenring failure, which was the first major setback of 2009 for the 18-year-old.

He added: “Last weekend’s result was definitely not how I wanted to go into my home GP with three crashes on race day, but up until that point in the season things had been going pretty well.

“It gets you down because to make a mistake like that and to be taken out of the race for something that really wasn’t my fault isn’t great, but I’ve got to put that behind me.

“I can’t change it now. We’ve got to focus on this weekend.

“We’ve only just hit the halfway point in the season and there’s 200-points up for grabs and we’ve seen how easily things can change.”

 

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