Monster Yamaha’s Bradley Smith didn’t suffer the same front-end tyre problems as some of the rest of the MotoGP pack at Austin as his YZR-M1 is setup with more rear weight bias which doesn’t load the tyre quite so much.

Smith said that because he is tall and naturally loads the front end, he doesn’t have to squash it into the tarmac which helps make the tyre last, plus he also gave it a breather early on before pushing to his fifth place.

“We ran something a little different than what the other Yamaha riders did, I believe it lost me time at the start of the race because Pol was able to come past but then it paid off towards the end,” said Smith, speaking at Austin.

“Because I am tall my riding style is a little more over the front so I don’t have any problems loading the front, sometimes I have to take away load so that obviously helps with tyre longevity.

“I had some problems for the first three or four laps but I decided I had to back off a little. I got a bit too aggressive and overheated my brakes too much and my front tyre got really warm so rather than risking it on a downward spiral, I let it recover which took three or four laps but as soon I felt we were stable I moved forward again.

“I made it very interesting with two laps to go with Stefan. I put all my cards on the table with the move as I knew Dovi was edging away. Unfortunately, it didn’t pay off but it was fifth position and top Yamaha.

“I went for Stefan where I did as I knew we would lose out of turn 11 and down the back straight and then he would have had to at least get past me down to turn 12 and then maybe I could have lunged but credit to him, he came straight back at me.”