Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Bradley Smith conquered the Indianapolis Grand Prix with a 6th place finish aboard the Yamaha YZR-M1 for round 10 of the 2015 MotoGP World Championship today. The British rider had a good start from the rear of the second row and completed the opening lap in 7th. Smith jumped past his teammate on the next lap and with him still hot on his heels, he set into his formidable race pace and pulled away from Espargaro whilst homing in on Andrea Iannone on the Factory Ducati. With 10 laps having been completed, the 24 year old was still running in 6th and confident of closing the gap to the rider in front. As the lap numbers counted down, Smith upped his pace, setting his personal best on the 23rd as he continued to reel in the Ducati in front. The fight went right down to the final lap and the British star completed the 27 lap sprint just two tenths of a second behind 5th place and as the leading satellite rider once again.

On the other side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team garage, Pol Espargaro produced a solid effort to clinch 7th position at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in front of a crowd of 68,000 fans today. The 24 year old stormed off the fourth row of the grid and finished the first lap in a fantastic 6th place. After exchanging some passes with his teammate and dropping back one position, he dug deep as he intended to climb through the field but ran wide on the 10th lap, which allowed Cal Crutchlow to pass him. He then became locked in a tough battle, however the relentless Spaniard powered onwards and took 7th back off Crutchlow on lap 14. The race distance progressed and the pair swapped positions again with Espargaro dropping back to 8th but the 2014 MotoGP Rookie of the year remained confident about reclaiming the position in front and made some aggressive steps forward. On the penultimate lap, he lunged inside Crutchlow to snatch 7th and cross the finish line in this position after a hard fought race.

Bradley Smith - Position : 6th Championship : 5th Points : 97 

"I have to be happy with the result today as it was another step forward. My most important objective was to start the second half of the season strong and keep the same level of performance from the beginning of the year, which I have been able to do. This weekend, the team always remained focused on the job ahead and it was capped by a strong result today making it a great weekend. However, I made a mistake at the start and I actually began the race with no launch control in first gear as I had changed to second just before the lights went out. Yet despite that, it was better than I expected and I won’t be making that mistake again in Brno! After the warm up this morning, I was a bit worried that we could struggle as it seemed that we did not have the pace at the beginning of the race but the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team and Bridgestone worked their magic for me and gave me a fantastic package. I must admit that I am a little disappointed that I couldn’t get past Iannone for 5th position but I was closer than I was in Sachsenring, so lets try and make another step in Brno."

Pol Espargaro - Position : 7th Championship : 9th Points : 73 

"Of course I can’t be completely satisfied with today’s result. Unfortunately I had to face the same issue which I have experienced some other times which is concerning the handling of the bike on new tyres and on full fuel load because it changes a lot. Therefore, I’m struggling to put my M1 into the positions I would like to do because it feels really heavy. Later at the midpoint of the race my rhythm became stronger and I could make up some time, but not as much as I lost at the beginning and when I started to get tired towards the end of the race, because I’m fighting with the bike, things didn’t get easier. Yet, we have to take some positives from today as I was able to pass Cal in the final stages of the race and reach the chequered flag in 7th position. Now we will keep working on trying to improve this circumstance for the next round which is right around the corner."

Hervé Poncharal - Team manager : 

"It was a good race result for us and I am really proud of both riders, they did their best and rode hard from the word go. It was a very exciting race and Bradley had a very strong pace and pushed Iannone all the way to the finish flag. Passing the Ducati was just out of reach, yet despite this,  I am very happy with his performance all weekend because he has been really competitive and is the fastest satellite bike once again. Plus, Brad is now fifth in the championship standings and three points ahead of Dovizioso which means a lot to me. I am also happy about Pol’s performance. He had a great start and gave his all throughout the race which was not easy for him after the two crashes he had this weekend so I want to thank him for his ‘never give up’ attitude. He managed to keep Cal behind and we all know how fast Cal can be, so to finish in 7th and be only one point behind him in the championship makes us really happy. I think both of our guys are going to have another strong race very soon in the Czech republic, so lets regroup and continue in this manner. We are a happy team tonight and we are going to celebrate a bit back in Indy before taking the flight back to Europe.”