Monster Yamaha MotoGP rookie Bradley Smith surprised himself with his own pace during his class debut on the satellite Yamaha M1, lapping just two seconds slower than fastest man Dani Pedrosa.

Smith's debut was planned for yesterday but indifferent weather put paid to that. Today, however, the Oxfordshire rider was able to lap in both wet and dry conditions, putting in a best of 1'34.538.

"After yesterday's heartbreak of not being able to ride, I thought it was going to be the same story but then I went out in the wet, so that was a good start. I was really shocked at how linear and smooth the bike is. I expected 250bhp to be a lot more aggressive than it was," said Smith, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

"There was a lot more power on the slick tyres, the traction control was less. The Bridgestone tyres were nowhere near as difficult to understand as I had thought. The bike does everything really well compared to what I have been riding.

"Figuring out how MotoGP bikes go fast is the hardest thing – re-learning how to make it go around the track. Moto2 I rode a lot different to how I rode the M1, just learning to back off a little into the corners. Cal (Crutchlow) followed me around the track and said I had to pick up the bike a bit more.

"I thought we did a really good job, I surprised myself with what I was able to achieve, so we go into the next two months really happy."