Pol Espargaro returned to the scene of his Moto2 World Title accomplishment today to produce a strong start to round 15 of the 2014 World Championship at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan. The premier class rookie opened the day with a firm ride to 7th in the morning session having run at the front of the field straight from the beginning of the practice around the 4801 meter circuit. His best lap of 1’46.365 was barely over four tenths of a second from the leading time on his Monster Yamaha YZR-M1, after the announcement that Monster Energy will remain as the title sponsor for the Tech3 team for a further two seasons. In the later session, the young Spaniard continued his forward momentum at the stop and go Japanese circuit to storm to a best time of 1’46.041, putting him in 7th position at the close of the day. His performance today leaves the 23 year old rider fully primed for tomorrow where he will aim to qualify on the front two rows for Sunday’s 24 lap race.

On the other side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 garage, Bradley Smith kick started his triple flyaway challenge in positive form to guide his Yamaha YZR-M1 to 8th position overall at the end of the day in Motegi. The young English rider began this morning by experimenting with setup options together with his Tech3 team in order to establish a strong base to work from for the rest of the weekend. He closed the first free practice by riding to 14th position as he remained full of optimism for the afternoon. When the latter session started, Smith progressed and produced a well calculated ride to confidently lay the foundations for Sunday's action by snatching 8th place and producing a time of 1’46.105. His time was fractionally behind 5th by only 0.2 of a second as he remains poised for a successful qualifying tomorrow at the Motegi circuit in Japan.

Pol Espargaro - Position : 7th - Time :1'46.041

"In all honesty it was quite a demanding day today. The track is not an easy one to ride due to the hard braking, as well as working out where the references are for each corner and we are still learning step by step. However, the final result itself is not bad at all and I am convinced that we have a large degree of improvement to make. For tomorrow, I certainly need to work on my riding style and afterwards we will try to fix some minor issues with the bike. At the moment we are losing most of our time in the intermediate sectors of the circuit and this is where we will focus on for tomorrow. Once we make these improvements I am certain that I will be able to have a strong qualifying where I intend to score a top grid position for the race on Sunday."

Bradley Smith - Position : 8th Time :1'46.105

"I am happy with today's final outcome even if it was tricky at the start, but we found a good setting which gave us a solid direction to work towards. My final run was a big step forward plus I was lapping with consistent times at the end so although we have some work to do to refine this setting further, I am pleased with the job we have done. It is a technical track and it appears as though the softer compound of tyres it is giving the Ducati's and the open class riders an advantage so it’s vital that we progress with our hard work in order to get into the top ten and go straight into Q2. Moreover I think it will be crucial to get a perfect run in qualifying as some other riders are close and will certainly be in the hunt. Considering the tough start, the end result is positive and we will confidently continue to push onwards tomorrow."

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