Tech 3 Yamaha workshop damaged by floods

The French base of Bradley Smith’s Monster Yamaha Tech 3 MotoGP squad has suffered extensive flood damage after torrential rain battered southern France.

The workshop in Bormes les Mimosas was under water on Sunday after a nearby river burst its banks and caused close to an estimated £100,000 in damage.

Herve Poncharal’s squad had been preparing for the forthcoming first test of 2014 at the Sepang track in Malaysia, which commences on February 4.

Shipping crates and parts were damaged in the flood, while the team also lost valuable components and equipment for its Moto2 squad, which is also due to start testing in Spain next month.

As the pictures sent by Tech 3 staff earlier today show, race trucks and offices were also damaged in the flood. Ever since the flood hit on Sunday, almost the entire Tech 3 staff have been working round-the-clock on a mammoth clean up operation.

It is the second time in less than a year that the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad, which will run Smith and reigning Moto2 world champion Pol Espargaro in MotoGP in 2014, has been the victim of a freak incident.

It was on the eve of the first MotoGP race at the new state-of-the-art Circuit of the Americas in Texas last April that thousands of pounds of equipment was damaged after a sprinkler system was triggered by a pit box fire.