Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Pol Espargaro will lunge from 5th position on the grid for the 12th round of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship at Silverstone after undertaking a brilliantly executed qualifying campaign today. The Spaniard began proceedings on Saturday morning by completing the FP3 session in 9th position, which left him able to instantly progress through to Q2. Proceeding that, a successful ride to 5th in the final free practice saw Espargaro full of optimism as he determinedly looked onwards to the qualifying 2 shootout. When the session began, he bolted from the pit lane aboard the Yamaha YZR-M1 and set a fast time of 2’01.031 on only his second lap. This was only 0.084 back from the head of the second row and his performance today will see him start the race as the leading satellite rider. He will seek to leap forward when the lights go out tomorrow and then challenge the factory MotoGP bikes at the rapid British circuit.

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team pit box, Bradley Smith successfully clinched 6th position in qualifying and will aim to speed to glory in front of his home fans in the 20 lap sprint tomorrow. The 24 year old rider launched into action as soon as the morning practice began and sped to his best time of 2’02.125 on his penultimate lap out of 18, which left him in 6th position. Later in QP2, Smith who was feeling confident of storming to a strong qualifying position, got straight to work at the 5.9 kilometre track. After undertaking 7 laps, the Briton’s best time was 2’01.140 that he set on his sixth lap, which left him just one tenth of a second behind his teammate. Tomorrow he will intend to undertake a rocket start from the rear of the second row and battle to a top six position in order to consolidate his standing of 5th in the championship.
   
 Pol Espargaro  - Position : 5th - Time : 2'01.031 Laps : 6 

“It’s been quite a while since I have been as satisfied as this after the qualifying. The session went very well and with the new tyre and the good grip, we were finally really competitive. However, the most important thing is that we had a consistent pace in FP4 and I was able to feel confident with the lower grip level as well, which is an area that we usually struggle with. So now we need to analyse the solution that we found as this might be crucial for other tracks because it could allow us to be fast straight away. Regarding the race tomorrow, we do not really know what to expect with the weather conditions, but for sure starting from the second row will be a huge positive. The initial 5 to 7 laps will be vital for a strong result because it is usually on the full fuel load where we lose most of our time, but I will certainly give it my all and put on a good show for the British fans.”

Bradley Smith - Position : 6th Time : 2'01.140 Laps : 7 

“I am pleased with my starting position for tomorrow’s race on the second row and I’m ready to do my best in front of my home fans. We accomplished exactly what we hoped to achieve today as it is crucial to get a good grid position in front of the Ducati MotoGP bikes, especially at a track like this. Those bikes are very fast on the straight, but not as quick as the Yamaha in the corners, so I knew that I needed to produce a good result in order start in front of them. We tried a few things in FP4 for our race setup for tomorrow, but to be honest, we knew that there were some tweaks that we could make to improve my single lap time, but I focused on getting everything sorted for tomorrow instead. Anyway, it’s my third consecutive second row start in part two of the season, which shows our progress is continuing and even though I still need to find a bit more race pace tomorrow morning, I feel good. I hope that the weather remains dry as a lot of English fans are coming out to cheer for me, so I will do my absolute best to not disappoint them by fighting inside the top six or higher.”