Pol Espargaro kicked off the second half of the 2015 MotoGP season with a firm run to 6th on the opening day of practice at the Indianapolis Grand Prix aboard the Yamaha YZR-M1. The MotoGP field initially had to deal with a lack of grip on the Indiana asphalt, yet despite this, Espargaro jumped straight into gear and pushed hard to conclude the opening practice in 8th position with a time of 1’34.669. When the afternoon session commenced, the young Spaniard, who has recently re-signed with Yamaha to ride for the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team for the 2016 season, continued his shake down in preparation for the 27 lap race on Sunday. He set his personal best of 1’33.362 on the 18th lap, yet unfortunately fell as he tried to improve this time on the following lap. Nevertheless, the 2013 Moto2 World Champion was not injured and his performance saw him claim 6th as he finished merely 0.207 back from third place. He now looks onwards to tomorrow, where he will aim to clinch a strong qualifying position for the race on Sunday.

Meanwhile on the other side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team garage, Bradley Smith concluded the first day of action after the three week MotoGP summer break with a run to 9th position as the Indianapolis Grand Prix got underway. The British star, who fully intends to reignite his strong form from the opening nine rounds, endured a tricky start in the morning practice as he finished in 16th after suffering with the lack of track grip. Despite this, he jumped straight back onto his MotoGP bike when the afternoon session began and continued taking the necessary steps forward with his Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team by adjusting the base setting of his YZR-M1. After completing 24 laps around the 4.2 kilometre circuit, which was more than any other MotoGP rider, Smith met the chequered flag with a time of 1’33.474, which was merely one tenth of a second behind his teammate. Tomorrow, he will carry on his assault as he aims to finish the weekend once again as the leading satellite rider.

Pol Espargaro - Position : 6th Time : 1'33.362 Laps : 39

"Overall I’m pleased with how today went and it has been nice to be back on my Yamaha YZR-M1 here in Indy. This morning the track was really dirty and the bike was sliding a lot, so I think that neither me nor most of the other riders really felt comfortable at all as the grip level was so low. However, later on in the afternoon, the track conditions improved after the previous Moto2 and Moto3 sessions and the grip had notably increased which allowed us to have a good practice. The session went really well, aside from the crash at the end, which was my mistake, but fortunately there weren’t any consequences for me and there was just a bit of damage to the bike. I felt strong and although there is a margin of improvement to make, I am looking forward to getting back on my bike tomorrow morning."

Bradley Smith - Position : 9th Time : 1'33.474 Laps : 46

"It’s been a good start to the weekend and obviously, it’s great to be back on the M1 again. I have to admit that it does feel a bit strange after riding the R1 so much during the summer break, but I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do this weekend. We began quite well and I felt good today but unfortunately on my best lap in the afternoon session, I was slowed down by a couple of riders. After the result this morning, we did not panic, because we knew that the track would improve and this afternoon I felt much better on the bike. I was able to ride a really strong and consistent pace on the hard tyre as well as on the soft compound when we tried it at the end of the session. The good thing is the consistency is there already, so now we just need to find the next step in order to go forward, but overall I am quite pleased with the performance. We are just inside the top ten which is where we need to be tomorrow morning, but I am confident that we can have a strong qualifying session, plus the track conditions will improve also. However, we will need to use tomorrow for the race setup because we probably can’t take too much information from today due to the lack of grip. Having said that, we are starting from a good base and that’s what counts for today."