"Alberto is definitely right in some ways," Bradley agreed before the 125cc race at
Jerez. "I don’t always give it that extra little bit that can give you a couple of tenths. I have to dig deeper."
It was just ironic that after qualifying a strong ninth and climbing to eighth place on the first lap, Bradley suffered a collision with the Italian Mattia Pasini, crashed, pitted and was eventually classified 26th and last. Brit cool and Latin fire should bring better results in future races.
Laverty rewards Lucio.
IT WAS GOOD to see Lucio Cecchinello, owner of the LCR team, rewarded at Jerez for his faith in selecting the 20-year-old Irish rider Eugene Laverty for his 250cc Honda this year. Cecchinello, who previously helped Casey Stoner’s career in
MotoGP, took a real chance in opting for Laverty, who has had to make a big jump from racing Supersport 600s in Britain. But Laverty claimed his first world championship points by finishing 14th at Jerez.
"That race was a big step forward," Laverty said. "I was learning from the faster riders at the beginning of the race. The main thing for me is changing my corner entry, line and speed, and my acceleration point compared to the 600.
"My corner entry is too fast at the moment, which means that I’m accelerating too late. I have to stop a little bit more in the middle of the corner and stand the bike upright. You can’t ride on the side of the tyre on a 250."
Laverty had climbed as high as 12th place at Jerez and was aiming for the top ten with only seven of the 26 laps remaining until he was slowed by an arm pump problem. He’d crashed the day before and needed new leathers, but they felt too tight in the forearms in the closing laps.
"Always a possibility with new leathers," one old hand in the Honda camp counselled. "He should have worn them for longer before the race."
