Monster Yamaha's Bradley Smith has taken big steps with a new chassis he was given for yesterday's Jerez MotoGP test which gives him more stability under braking and more rear grip for added corner-entry speed.

The Oxfordshire rider is now on the chassis team-mate Cal Crutchlow has been using this season and it allows him more front-end adjustment. Smith was able to cut half a second off his race pace and says it is a big step in the right direction.

"I was lucky enough to get a new chassis. We tried a few different solutions with that and we made some big steps in terms of race setting on old tyres - not so much on new rubber but with the conditions, it was dependant on when you put the new rubber in and when you did the laptime," said Smith, speaking at Jerez.

"It is difficult to compare to the race but those were really tricky conditions but I was able to do 1'40s all day on old tyres and new. I felt quite happy there, I didn't feel like I was risking too much. Hopefully that's a good setting and in the right direction.

"There are more options with the new chassis where you can put the front of the bike. One problem I have had is with the brakes, being unstable, and not transferring the weight to the rear as you feel it is always on the front so we were able to make a few modifications in that area.

"It means I was more stable with more rear grip, which is important when the tyre performance goes down. It helps with this bike because you can keep on carrying the corner speed. We went from being 1.3s off race pace to probably only 0.7s. That over a race distance is going to be a big step because at the end of the day 44 seconds is still too much."