Britain's Bradley Smith says he has found the key to the front Bridgestone tyre during this weekend's Brno MotoGP round and is has enabled him to qualify less than half a second slower than pole man and Monster Yamaha team-mate Cal Crutchlow.

The Oxfordshire youngster has been in and around the top six in terms of outright pace since first practice yesterday and he thinks now he is getting close to finding the performance edge with his satellite YZR-M1.

"From Indy we found something and at Indy we tried to cure some of our problems and get a direction, especially with the front of the bike but we went the wrong way and it didn't quite work. That was a learning experience, this weekend we started on pace at a track I've gone well at," said Smith, speaking at Brno.

"I was pole position here on a 125 so it is a track I have got a good record at. Without doubt we improved the front end a lot. It is giving me a chance to enter the corner faster and faster, which is a Yamaha style. All in all a little bit here and a little bit there, a good performance.

"My understanding of the motorcycle is getting better and better. We've not been able to unlock the Bridgestone front until this weekend. We have started to work a little bit more and understand what we were missing and over the last two days analysed a lot of the data to pinpoint where the areas are."