Smith acknowledges teamwork after maiden win

Monday, 4 May 2009

Briton Bradley Smith thanked his team for putting him in the position to win his first Grand Prix race on Sunday.

Finally breaking his GP win duck in true style on Sunday at the Gran Premio bwin.com de España Bradley Smith underlined the great work done by his Bancaja Aspar crew which enabled him to cross the line with a 13 second advantage over his nearest rival.

It was a great day for the Spanish Aspar team with Smith’s colleague Sergio Gadea finishing second in front of the passionate 120,000 crowd – the perfect remedy after their colleague Julián Simón suffered a nasty highside on lap five when running in second place.

Smith took full advantage of Simón’s misfortune and that of series leader Andrea Iannone (Ongetta Team I.S.P.A) - who crashed on the first lap – to go unchallenged en route to victory, the 18 year-old from Oxfordshire closing to within one point of Iannone in the standings.

To do true justice to Smith it must be noted that he could well have cruised to victory even if his rivals had stayed on two wheels, as he rode at a brilliant pace, taking the holeshot from second on the grid and never looking back.

After his two seasons with Repsol Honda in 2006 and 2007, Smith stepped up his competitiveness last year with Polaris World, but inconsistency cost him dear and he was unable to cash in on three pole positions despite leading races.

All that is behind him now thanks to his spectacular first win in his 50th World Championship race. Reflecting on his win, the humble teenager commented, “It is so difficult to describe how it feels, especially here in Spain at the home race for my team. It’s just a fantastic thing to be able to do for them and in front of this amazing crowd it is just incredible.”

Fifth in Qatar and tenth in Japan Smith continued, “We have had two difficult races so far this season so to come here and win in this way with such a big gap… I cannot describe how good that feels at the moment.”

Red Bull MotoGP Academy graduate added, “It is all thanks to everyone who has helped me in the three seasons leading up to this, especially the Aspar team this year. Things can only go forward from this point and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season now.”