Misano MotoGP: Bradley Smith seventh in 125GP practice

Bradley Smith made a disappointing start to the Misano 125GP weekend this afternoon.

The British rider clocked a best time of 1.45.438 that was only good enough to secure the 19-year-old seventh position on the practice leaderboard.

The Aspar Aprilia rider, who crashed out of second place during last weekend’s Indianapolis race, was never seriously in contention for a top three and he finished a massive 1.209s behind team-mate Nicolas Terol.

The Spaniard dominated the session run in warm but breezy conditions at the Misano circuit.

Terol has won the last two races in Brno and Indianapolis to fire his title challenge back into life and starts this weekend’s 11th round trailing Marc Marquez by just four-points.

A best lap of 1.44.229 in the final seven minutes secured him top spot. At one stage his best pace was over half-a-second clear of the field but Derbi rider Marquez logged a 1.44.481 on his final lap to cut the gap to 0.252s.

Pol Espargaro was third quickest with a best lap of 1.44.706 but he was a further 0.225s back while the session’s early leader Efren Vazquez ended up fourth fastest with a best time of 1.45.008.

German Sandro Cortese, who finished second just five days ago in Indianapolis, was the last rider to lap inside of a second of Terol. His best time of 1.45.089 left him 0.860s off Terol’s benchmark.

British rider Danny Webb finished the session in ninth position. Boosted by his best result of the 2010 campaign in Indianapolis when he claimed a brilliant sixth, the Kent rider posted a best time of 1.45.887 to finish just over 1.6s of the quickest pace.