British MotoGP: Bradley Smith thrilled with second

Bradley Smith refused to be too downbeat after narrowly missing out on the chance to claim a second successive home 125GP pole position at Silverstone today.

Smith looked certain to claim the seventh pole of his career when Spaniard Marc Marquez clocked a lap of 2.14.667 on his last lap to bump Smith back to second by just 0.299s but the 19-year-old is still confident that he can claim a third 125GP success in tomorrow’s 17-lap race. 

The Aspar Aprilia rider said: “We were only missing that tiny bit extra; it would have been great to take pole for my home race. I can say that I gave my all in both sessions and that I’m very happy with how my Aprilia is working. It is stable despite the puddles on the track, and the engine is going excellently.

“We had a good pace today and were only three tenths off the pole position time. It’s hard to say how things will go tomorrow, because the group can either be big or small -the important thing in any case will be to split it up.

“The top four are sure to be close together, so it is possible that if nobody breaks up the pack then more riders could join us in the fight. I will definitely try and start strong; I want to finish the weekend on the podium, move up in the classification and give the home fans something to cheer about.”