Bradley Smith superbly steered his Monster Yamaha Tech3 YZR-M1 to 4th position on the grid for tomorrow’s Tissot Australian Grand Prix after an expertly fought qualifying practice today. The young British rider opened the day by surging to 6th in the morning practice with a time of 1’29.661. This was an improvement of 0.652 from yesterday’s afternoon session, which illustrated his consistent progress in lowering his lap times during the weekend. In the afternoon, it started raining moments before the QP2 session, yet it did not fall heavily enough to deem the 15 minute shootout wet. Despite this tricky occurrence, Smith began the qualifying 2 session at full speed and attacked instantly with his ambition of landing a spot on the top two rows, on the cards. The British star produced a mature display to aggressively power to a time of 1’28.656. His time was only 0.006 from the front row and in addition a mere 0.014 of a second from the second position in what was a truly accomplished finish to the qualifying. This leaves the 23 year old rider fully poised for success in tomorrow’s 27 lap race which he will begin from the head of the second row.

Meanwhile, Pol Espargaro undertook a confident charge to qualify on the third row of the grid for tomorrow’s race at the fast flowing and meandering Phillip Island circuit in Australia. The high flying rookie began the day by finishing in 5th position in the morning session with an impressive time of 1’29.635 which was just over a tenth of a second from the front row. The 23 year old rider’s positive wave of confidence continued into the afternoon qualifying 2 practice and despite the tricky situation with the weather, the Spanish rider embarked on a strong willed qualifying mission. He finally blazed across the finish line with a best time of 1’28.968 which was only over half a second from the top of the time sheet, illustrating the close competition today. Nevertheless, his performance sees him confident for the battle tomorrow which he will start from 9th position on the grid for round 16 of the 2014 MotoGP World Championship.

Bradley Smith - Position : 4th Time : 1'28.656

"I am really pleased to be fourth today even though a front row start would have been a nice bonus. Initially, I had hoped to qualify on the outside of one of the rows so that I could attack the first corner, so to clinch fourth is great and I am convinced that I can have a strong race tomorrow. At the beginning I decided to do four laps on my first tyre just to check the conditions plus loosen up a bit and then after pitting, I set my quickest time on the first lap on the new tyre. The times were really close, but we achieved what we aimed for and it’s great to know that I went faster today than last year on a track where conditions were completely different. Plus this year's pole position was half a second slower than 2013’s. Nevertheless, I know that the race will be a long and challenging one and it will be very important to look after the tyre as it already starts to move after just a third of the race distance, but I will give it my all to bring home a firm result."

Pol Espargaro - Position : 9th Time : 1'28.968

"To be honest today's result is not what we were aiming for and I think it will be a bit of a challenge to battle through the field to get to where I want to be in the race, but I am still ready for the action. We have been a bit uncertain about the front tyre choice for the whole weekend and that didn’t make things any easier for me during my first visit here on a MotoGP bike. Today in qualifying 2, I decided to use the softer compound of tyre, even though I was faster on the harder one, but as it rained just before the start of the session the track cooled slightly so we went for the softer option. This was probably a small mistake, but I am learning more every race. Still, to be 9th means that I am on the third row so I am sure that I can make up some positions and ride to a strong finish at Phillip Island."

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