Smith qualifies at head of second row

The British rider continued

The British rider continued from Friday’s positive start at Brno by placing third, as the top Yamaha, in the Saturday morning practice with a best time of 1'56.780 – putting him straight through to Q2.

The 23 year-old proceeded to push further onwards in the dry qualifying shootout and on his sixth and last lap he powered over the start finish line to post a best time of 1’55.730.

In addition, his lap time was a mere four thousandths of a second from the front row and his performance saw him only two tenths from the circuit best lap. The British star will seek to undertake a good start from the front of the second row and then aggressively compete to be the leading satellite bike aboard the Yamaha YZR-M1 in Sunday’s race.

Smith commented, “I am very pleased with the qualifying result as it gives me the perfect platform for a strong result. It’s the first time since the start of the season that we have been back to the level of performance that we had at Qatar and today I was able to score a positive grid position. The team did an excellent job and I must thank my technicians and Guy Coulon for their brilliant technical knowledge plus guidance.”

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