Today the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team rider Pol Espargaro bolted into action in the opening shakedown at the Circuito de Jerez as he embarked on setting up his Yamaha YZR-M1 for the round four battle on Sunday. When FP1 commenced, the Spaniard got straight to work and completed 19 laps, which left him in 12th and confident of improving in the afternoon. Here, the 25-year-old continued his efforts before finishing in 14th, yet just a mere 0.307 from 8th. Espargaro now focuses on tomorrow where he intends to up the pace and clinch a top tier qualifying position.

Meanwhile, Bradley Smith pushed determinedly at the beginning of his Jerez fight and closed the day just behind his teammate by 0.120 of a second. The 2015 top satellite rider got into gear as soon as the wheels started turning in the morning practice and he worked on establishing a solid setup for the 27-lap sprint. In FP2, Smith carried on his preparation and set his best time in the final stages of the session. Nevertheless, the British star will look to make further steps forward tomorrow ahead of the all-important qualifying shootout.

Pol Espargaro - Position : 14th Time : 1'41.167 Points : 39 

"To be honest, the first day has not been super positive and the position is far from where we want to be, but we will keep on pushing. This situation seems to be reoccurring this year and by that I mean that we are only closer to the other satellite riders when it comes to race day. Anyway, to preserve tyres we used the same set from FP1 in the afternoon. This was in order to keep some new tyres for tomorrow, but even though I was on old rubber, it’s not nice to end up where we did. Therefore, we have to really go for it tomorrow so that we can go straight through to QP2 even if that may seem like a bit of a challenge at the moment. We have to solve a few issues as the grip is very low and we are struggling with the traction. In addition, if we check the data with the factory guys, we cannot compare it because they are running completely different setups, which are not compatible with our bikes. Nevertheless, my focus is on qualifying which is the most important thing for me, as it is vital to have a good grid position in order to have a better chance of doing a solid job on Sunday."

Bradley Smith - Position : 16th Time : 1'41.287 Laps : 40 

"The positive thing about today is that we are continuing the progress that we made at the Circuit of The Americas. Everything that we undertook in Texas seems to be working ok here and we are proceeding to learn and make steps forward with the setting. As a result, the team and I will aim to continue going in this direction. By FP2, we already had a decent pace, but it seems as though we are struggling a little bit all around the track and not in one particular sector. Therefore, we will focus on the task ahead and also analyse the Yamaha data, because the information about Jorge’s 1’39.5 lap is going to be valuable to look at and then we will see where we can improve. I am generally quite satisfied with the feeling that I have with the bike, but we need to cut the time and try our hardest to move up the field so that we can get into Q2 tomorrow.”