British 125GP riders Bradley Smith, Scott Redding and Danny Webb suffered their share of hard luck at the Motegi MotoGP round with inital race leader Webb taking a gamble on tyres which didn't pay off.

Webb went out with his De Graaf Aprilia shod with wet tyres and took the lead on lap two but as the track dried out, he lost grip and slowly edged back through the pack and finished the race in 11th, behind Smith.

Bancaja Aprila man Smith was making progress through the field as the track dried but a near highside in the closing stages, which saw him smash his screen and injure his face, meant tenth was as good as it got.

"The start of the race was pretty difficult, because I was using slicks and had no grip. I was just thinking about not crashing with the knowledge that the track was drying out rapidly, because my plan was too push on in the last part of the race," said Smith.

"I had some problems with the engine on the corner exit, and it was more aggressive and harder to control. I don't know why this happened. With three laps to go I nearly crashed after the bike bucked, but I was thankfully able to complete the race. Tenth isn't what I expected, but at least there's a few more points on the board, so next weekend in Jerez I am convinced that we can be more successful.

Redding, meanwhile, suffered a stuck throttle and had to pull in because, even though he was able to carry a lot of corner speed, he believed he wouldn't be in the points by the chequered flag.

“We had a problem with the engine, and we still do not know what it was. It hardly stopped revving when braking, and halfway along the straight I had to cut off the throttle," said Redding.

"I was braking very late but I was taking corners with a lot of inertia. I do not think I could have won any points, and what is more if things had continued the same I could have fallen. I decided to stop and see what the problem was and wait for Jerez.”