Smith condeeds title after “lucky” podium
Added on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Smith condeeds title after “lucky” podium
British 125cc rider Bradley Smith admitted that his look was in at Misano on Sunday as a blunder from Andrea Iannone and Pol Espargaro gifted him a podium place.
The 18-year-old secured a fortuitous third place finish in the 125 San Marino Grand Prix, his second podium in a row, although it was handed to him courtesy of a crash involving Iannone and Espargaro forced them out of the race in the closing stages to hand the Oxfordshire rider the final place on the rostrum.
“I can say that I am happy with the podium, but it is a shame that we couldn’t have fought for an even better result,” said Smith.
“The start of the race was difficult for me -braking didn’t feel comfortable- but I felt better and better as the race progressed and I started to overtake other riders. I had fun riding and coming back through the field, and I knew that little by little I could get up to the podium places, but with ten laps to go I had a problem with the gearbox on the slow corners. That dropped me down again, and I thought that the rostrum had escaped my grasp.
“The last lap incident between Espargaró and Iannone gifted me third place, and I think that this was the perfect result.”
But despite the podium finish, Smith seem to conceded that race winner and championship leader Julián Simón had wrapped up the title, claiming that his teammate’s win, which puts him 57.5 points ahead of Nicolas Terol and 62.5 points ahead of Smith in third, gave the Spaniard too much of a gap to bridge.
“Fourth, second and third in the last three races are good results, and I’m feeling a lot more comfortable. I will have to continue like this and attack hard in the last four races to get the runner-up spot,” he added.
