Smith confident after advances in wet and dry

Bradley Smith was left one of the few riders pleased with his progress on the opening day of the Phillip Island test, after making the most of damp conditions that hampered many of his rivals.

Working on learning the new standard electronics package on his Monster Tech 3 Yamaha, the Oxfordshire racer says he’s delighted with his progress.

“Today more than anything has been about working with the electronics. That’s going to be the key thing for us going into our season, so today we worked on engine braking and traction control a lot.

“Working out what are big steps and what are little steps, what I like and what I don’t like has been important. But what is good is that it rubbed off in the dry too – everything I tried in the wet worked in the dry too.

“Although I only did 27 laps, I feel like it was maybe more productive than the 60 I did in Sepang.”

Smith saw rewards for his work too, finishing the opening day third, as top Yamaha and well clear of the factory machines of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo.