#Pata @Honda’s Kyle Smith set the fourth fastest time in today’s opening free practice sessions in preparation for Sunday’s tenth round World Supersport championship at Magny-Cours in France.
Smith, 24, fired his Honda CBR600RR around the 4.411km circuit in a time of 1m42.228s, less than 0.5s off the provisional pole time of local specialist Lucas Mahias and just behind fellow Honda rider PJ Jacobsen, who was third fastest today.
Smith and his crew will persevere with fine-tuning the settings on the bike in tomorrow’s third free practice session and then aim for a strong grid position in the afternoon qualifying session ahead of Sunday’s 19-lap race.
Kyle Smith - P4
It’s been a positive day and I’m happy with P4 at the end of the day. I’ve felt comfortable on the bike but, as usual, there are a few areas that we need to work on in order to go a little bit faster. We need to find a little more drive out of some of the corners, but the pace is OK and I’m pretty pleased with that result at the end of day one.
Pieter Breddels - technical co-ordinator
This morning Kyle had a steady start but in the afternoon he was struggling a little to pick up the pace. We tried several things and, in the end, we made some changes to the front of the bike that Kyle needed to have the confidence to push a little harder. In his last stint he was able to improve the time quite dramatically compared to the morning and that put him fourth. We still have to improve but the direction we went was definitely the right way.
Weather
Sunny Intervals
Air
18°C
Track
27°C
Humidity
58%
Free Practice Results
1 Lucas Mahias 1m41.660s FRA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres
2 Kenan Sofuoglu 1m41,751s TUR KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
3 Patrick Jacobson 1m42.057s USA HONDA CORE Motorsport Thailand
4 Kyle Smith 1m42.228s GBR HONDA Pata Honda World Supersport Team
5 Lorenzo Zanetti 1m42.386s ITA MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
6 Alex Baldolini 1m42.480s ITA MV Race Department ATK#25
7 Marco Faccani 1m42.542s ITA KAWASAKI Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
8 Nicolas Terol 1m42.587s ESP MV MV Agusta Reparto Corse
9 Roberto Rolfo 1m42.614s ITA HONDA Team Lorini
10 Kevin Wahr 1m42.740s GER HONDA SMS Racing