Smith: “We need to be careful in the first 24 hours”

Bradley Smith says that it’s going to be important to be careful on the Termas de Río Hondo circuit on the opening day of this year’s Argentinean MotoGP race, as the rarely used track comes up to speed.

Barely used between MotoGP races every year, the riverside track can be slippery initially – and the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider says it’s something to be careful of.

“Coming here, everyone is a little nervous, because there’s not a lot of information, especially from the tyres. The track will evolve through the weekend, but we’re going to see a lot of graining early on because the circuit isn’t used enough all year – we need to be careful in the first 24 hours.”

However, he’s also looking forward to the weekend, admitting that with very little testing at the track on the new Michelin tyres, there is a lot to be learned from the initial sessions.

“I think the tyres will be quite hard here, and we might have to make some radical changes in some areas to find some grip – but I’m trying to not have too many preconceived ideas, because everything might be fine and dandy and we could end up doing full race simulations in FP1!

“It’s important to have all bases covered, though, because 45 minutes disappears really quickly, especially if the track is green and greasy. We really need to be on our game if we’re going to be fast come Sunday.”