Brit Smith continues to shine in Le Mans

Bradley Smith continued his brilliant display in the French GP at Le Mans this morning by claiming the third fastest time in second free practice.

The British teenager clocked a best of 1.44.224 to finish behind Mattia Pasini and Shanghai GP winner Lukas Pesek.

This morning’s performance continued Smith’s impressive form in France, and he is yet to finish outside of the top three in the opening three sessions.

He was fastest yesterday morning when the action got underway and claimed a slot on the provisional front row with the third best in opening qualifying.

He was just 0.011s from edging out Czech Republic rider Pesek for second this morning, and his time was a massive 0.9s faster than his qualifying best.

He will be looking to improve on his Shanghai qualifying result of fifth this afternoon in final qualifying. His China qualifying was the best by a British rider for 17 years.

It has not been all good news though for Smith’s Repsol Honda team. Spanish team-mate Esteve Rabat, who claimed a brilliant debut podium in China earlier this month, broke his left hand in a high-speed qualifying crash yesterday afternoon.

He flew back to Barcelona this morning for treatment after he was involved in a multi-rider crash at 130mph at turn one.

He is expected too be fit for the Italian GP in Mugello on June 3.