Motegi MotoGP: Bradley Smith fourth in first practice

Bradley Smith’s hopes of a second successive 125GP podium finish received an early boost today when he set the fourth quickest in opening practice for Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.

The Oxfordshire rider was a constant threat in the top three for most of the opening session run in sunny but windy conditions at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.

Smith looked like securing third place until German Sandro Cortese dropped him back to fourth in the dying seconds of a session completely dominated by Smith’s Aspar Aprilia team-mate Nicolas Terol.

Smith, who finished third in the recent Motorland Aragon clash, ended with a best time of 2.00.438 to finish just 0.003s behind Cortese, who clocked a personal best of 2.00.405 on his final flying lap.

Smith’s best though was comfortably beaten by in-form Spaniard Terol, who was rarely threatened at the top of the timesheets.

Smith’s time was 0.556s adrift of Terol’s fastest pace of 1.59.882 as the world championship leader was the only rider to duck under the two-minute barrier.

Marc Marquez briefly led the session just before the halfway stage before Terol hammered home his superiority in the final ten minutes.

At one stage he was a massive 0.900s clear of the field and only title rival Marquez was able to lap inside of half-a-second of Terol by the session’s conclusion.

Marquez, who trails Terol by 11-points going into Sunday’s 20-lap race, has only scored one podium in the last four races as his title tilt has stuttered after adominant mid-season spell.

The Spaniard ended with a best time of 2.00.085 to cut Terol’s advantage to just 0.203s.

Pol Espargaro injected momentum into his title challenge two weeks ago when he won the Motorland Aragon 125GP clash.

He trails Terol by just six-points but he had a nightmare start in the Far East and ended up in fifth position with a best time of 2.00.612 after two crashes.

He first lost the front end with 23 minutes remaining at turn four and then suffered a massive high-side in the closing stages. He was able to walk away from both.

British teenager Danny Webb was 12th fastest, his best time of 2.02.020 leaving him over two seconds off the best pace.