Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team rider Pol Espargaro charged to an expertly undertaken 6th place to finish his debut season in the MotoGP class in superb form at Valencia. The 23 year old commenced the 30 lap sprint from the rear of the second row with drops of rain falling as soon as the race began. Espargaro undertook a solid start before being pushed back to 8th at the close of the first lap, yet he powered on as the rain still fell, albeit intermittently. The young Spanish rider had slipped back to 13th on lap 4, but showed a fantastic display of determination to remain firm and try to move up the field. Espargaro pushed onwards and with two thirds of the race distance covered, he had ascended though the order in a consistent manner and back up to 7th with his sights directly set on the position in front. On the 25th lap the rookie had brilliantly closed the gap to his brother, Aleix Espargaro, in front and sped past to move into 6th one lap later before speeding across the finish line in this placement. His resolute and hard fought ride saw him brilliantly achieve his ambition of seizing 6th and the title of the leading satellite rider as well the rookie of the year in the 2014 World Championship standings.

On the other side of the Monster Yamaha Tech3 garage, Bradley Smith concluded his 2014 campaign with a ride to 14th after an unfortunate final round in Valencia. The British star started the race from 7th on the grid, but was shuffled down to 11th place by the end of the first lap. However, Smith persisted with his efforts to jump back up the field in order to score a top result as he set into a fierce race pace. By lap seven, the 23 year old rider had reached 8th position and continued to climb. Yet, with more spots of rain falling at the 4005 metre Ricardo Tormo circuit, Smith unluckily fell on lap 17, before re-joining to end the lap in 20th. Nevertheless, the young British rider proceeded forward and a final dash in the last laps saw Smith make up ground as well as six places to cross the line in 14th. The performance today marks a challenging yet resolute end to the 2014 season which sees him finish in 8th position in the world championship standings.

Pol Espargaro - Position : 6th Championship : 6th Points : 136

"I can't help but be slightly disappointed about our result today, even if this was not because of the placement itself yet, more about how things went. The second row was a solid position to start the race from and this morning with a full fuel load and used tyres I finished second in the warm up, so I think we were really prepared for the last race of the season. However, just like many other times this year, the rain came right at the start of the race and ruined our hopes. I am still not very experienced riding in the slight wet conditions with the slick tyres but today I couldn't risk too much. I had Bradley and my brother close to me on the track, who I was fighting with for the 6th place in the championship, so I had to think about the end result as well as finishing the race without any mistakes. However, I still ended my rookie year as the best non-factory rider, which had to be our aim, so I'm truly pleased with what we achieved. I want to say a huge thanks to the team for all their work as well as patience in teaching and supporting me this year. Tomorrow we'll kick off preparations for 2015 and I'm already excited to try our new parts."

Bradley Smith - Position : 14th Championship : 8th Points : 121

"Overall, it was positive to be able to finish the race after falling, but today’s result didn’t reflect the true performance that we would have been able to achieve. The bike felt extremely well so firstly, a big thanks to my team for the work that they undertook and in all honesty, I am sure that I could have fought for 4th position. However, unfortunately at the beginning of the race I was pushed out wide by my teammate and then afterwards my fight with Aleix cost me further time so I lost the gap to the Ducati’s. Yet, once I was able to get in front of my group, I could run a good pace and recovered some time on the riders in front of me. Then I made a mistake going into turn 8 when the track was slippery due to the rain and I locked the front tyre. When I tried to get back on track, I tried to use a shortcut but a marshal stopped me which made me lose further time so it would have been better to turn and come back sooner. For sure, I will learn from this mistake and I am sorry to the team as we lost the 7th position, but I am still satisfied with the final placement in the standings. Furthermore, I hope to begin 2015 with a similar high to how we have performed in the second half of this season."

Hervé Poncharal - Team manager :

"It was another potentially great race for the fans as well as for the Monster Yamaha Tech3 Team and yet again there was another round spoilt by the weather. For sure, the 2014 MotoGP class has suffered with the weather interfering on race day, but everyone has to deal with it but it certainly didn’t help our performance. Both Pol and Brad were competitive in practice and qualifying, so looked promising for the final race. Unfortunately both riders didn’t get off the line as strongly as usual and then the rain came. Until Bradley crashed we were holding third in the team championship, which is a shame to lose, but of course there are more important things to be concerned with. When he fell, it was a slow and not damaging one but he still lost a lot of positions. This was a real pity as he was lapping really well and he was actually the second fastest rider in terms of lap times on the track towards the end of the race which helped him to recover to 14th. Perhaps with one additional lap, things would have been more positive as he could have climbed even higher. On the other hand, Pol still showed that he needs more time to learn to be more confident on slicks in slightly wet conditions. Yet, he rode a sensible race, used his head and kept looking at his pit board to keep his brother behind him at the end of the race. He ended up 6th which is the best of the rest as well as also being the quickest rookie, first satellite and non factory rider, so congratulations to him as it has not been easy. For sure he will have a bitter taste in his mouth as it’s not what he was aiming for but we saw some great racing names struggling today. It was good for Pol and unfortunately for Brad this is racing, you have to be fast, lucky, cleaver and also finish the race. Now that the season is over I must say thank you to both of the riders, the whole team, Yamaha and the partners for their efforts. Everything starts again tomorrow as we now prepare for 2015."

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