Britain’s Bradley Smith has admitted it was a  crazy decision to stay out on slicks in the rain during today’s Misano MotoGP race but the Monster Yamaha rider kept it upright to claim second place behind Marc Marquez and his best MotoGP finish to date.

Smith had kept his top-five place as the rain came down just a couple of laps from the start but didn’t follow Marquez, Lorenzo and Rossi in. A lap later there was no point so he took a gamble on the track drying out.

“I stayed out for the whole race on slicks, which was a crazy decision I will admit myself, but I missed the first lap to pit in when the rest came in and then it seemed to rain less. By then I am already two laps behind so I thought I was in it for the long haul and stay out. At some points it got scary - I did a 2’18 and tried to highside myself into turn turn ten but then it started to dry,” said Smith, speaking at Misano.

“I knew that with these conditions the track would dry, but I didn’t know just how fast this circuit would dry and it was difficult to see exactly but when you’re as low as 21st and to come around and finish second was great.

“When I made the gamble I didn’t expect to be on the podium but these opportunities come around very rarely. Satellite riders work very hard all year round but we never get a chance to be on the podium, so you have to take them when they come up.”