Monster Yamaha's Bradley Smith bagged a solid 12th place behind the Ducatis he so wanted to beat but said it was another 21 laps of learning and now he wants to break into the top ten at Jerez next time out at Jerez – a circuit usually favouring the corner speed style of the YZR-M1.

Smith used the harder compound front tyre for raceday and it took the Oxfordshire youngster some laps to get its measure. What he didn’t want was another error and crash like Qatar so Smith built and built, setting his fastest lap on the last but one.

“I am really happy to finish the race because what I learned over a full race distance was priceless. I ran the hard front tyre on the advice of Bridgestone and while it was definitely the right choice, it took me a few laps to understand how it was working. The last thing I needed was to push too hard and make another mistake like in Qatar but the best thing about the race is I got faster and faster,” said Smith.

“I was quicker as in qualifying on the penultimate lap of the race, and that’s a sign of how much better I was riding the bike. I am learning more and more about the bike on each lap and I can go to Jerez now confident that I can be even more competitive and the goal will be to get closer to the top 10.”