After taking a thoroughly deserved rest day at the end of an impressive but long debut MotoGP season yesterday, Bradley Smith made a brilliant return to action for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team on day two of the traditional Valencia MotoGP test in Spain earlier today.

With a hectic testing schedule in front of him, Smith went quickly down to work when the track opened in perfect weather conditions at 10am this morning.

The young British rider, who finished 10th in an encouraging rookie MotoGP campaign, got his first chance to evaluate a factory-spec chassis, seat unit and fuel tank package raced by Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi last season.

The 22-year-old was immediately fast on the updated YZR-M1 machine and he made excellent progress in warm and sunny conditions to set a best time of 1.31.397. That secured Smith the sixth fastest time and he was just ahead of nine-times World Champion Rossi.

New teammate Pol Espargaro delivered yet another eye-catching performance to follow up from his confident and assured first ride on the YZR-M1 machine yesterday.

The reigning Moto2 World Champion lowered his lap time by well over a second in a 72-lap stint today and a best time of 1.31.836 was less than 0.5s behind Smith’s pace and less than a second outside of Lorenzo's speed.

Further proof of how quickly Espargaro is adapting to the new MotoGP challenge came when he was able to reduce the gap to the top of the time of the timesheets from almost two seconds yesterday to just 1.3s this afternoon.

Bradley Smith 6th 1.31.397 – 78 laps:

“It was definitely worth taking a rest yesterday because I had to do a lot of laps today and now my brain is full of information after a very positive day. It was important for me to ride a lot to really assess the new parts in such ideal conditions. Immediately the updates gave a great feeling. I did a few laps on the bike I raced on Sunday to start with but on my first run on the new bike I was instantly faster and felt more comfortable in the areas where I have been struggling all season. I got a lot of feedback from the bike and I was clearly faster on the harder tyre, which was not easy for me during the race weekend. My feelings with the rear improved and the bike stops better on a full fuel tank, so I am really satisfied. I am closer to the top position too, which is another big plus for me. We will try some different settings tomorrow but already this new package makes me very excited and optimistic for 2014.”

Pol Espargaro 9th 1.31.836 – 72 laps:

“I’m really happy with the progress we made today and enthusiastic because I thought my first impressions on the bike would be worse, as it was the case when I changed from 125cc to Moto2. Fortunately I truly enjoy riding my new Yamaha YZR-M1. I know that the difficulties of improving my lap time will start soon but I think we have done a pretty good job so far. I was 1.3s faster than yesterday and that is just one second behind Jorge, who is my reference point as fastest Yamaha. Today I started to use different Bridgestone front and rear tyres to understand the behaviour of them and I used the full carbon brakes, which are so different from what I have used before. I hope it will not rain tomorrow, as I really would like to collect some more information with the bike before going into the winter break.”

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