Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Bradley Smith is feeling frustrated this evening, as another bike issue meant he missed out on a potential top six MotoGP finish at Silverstone today.

The Brit was riding high and was aiming for a top five finish, but a cracked rim in the rear wheel of his bike meant that he had to stop his race, and quickly retreated to the pits. Smith didn’t want to let his home fans down and changed to a wheel used in the qualifying session from yesterday, and went back out to finish the race. 

The rider was overwhelmed by all the support he has had from his home fans and their determination helped him carry on. Smith also wanted to go back out to make sure that there was not another problem with his bike – but the wheel situation will now be examined by the team.

This is not the first time something like this has happened to Smith. During the last round at Brno he had a problem with his tyre, which meant he missed out on valuable points. Smith is not dwelling on the situation, as it was something that was out of his control, but vows to fight back for the next round at Misano.

“I was jumping out of my seat to be able to follow like a did and to make the passes like I did. I passed people like Pedrosa then all of a sudden I felt the rear drop and I thought maybe it is just the extra temperature and slowly it got worse and worse and I had big moments - I felt like was going to crash,” said Smith, at the circuit.

“I had a cracked rim, and I lost a lot of air in the tyre. I don’t know when it happened but unfortunately it was cracked. I stopped and changed to one from qualifying and went out with no real issues. I am a bit frustrated and it was clarification that I would have got sixth today.

“All the rarity and one in a millions seem to happen to me this season.  I expect it now but I have learnt how to deal with it and I have to plough through it, and our pace will soon shine through. But the fans were amazing, and on the cool down lap the support was great. We will look into the history of the wheel now, but I wished it happened in practice or warm up.

“I have nailed the beginning of the race, and I was battling up the front and that was down to a great job by the team, but hopefully something will change with our fortune. I can't be frustrated with things that our out of my hands and as a team we are improving."

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