Britain’s Bradley Smith believes he is worthy of securing a factory MotoGP ride in 2017 after finishing sixth in this year’s championship and winning the satellite battle with team-mate Pol Espargaro, who holds a works Yamaha contract.

The Monster Yamaha man, who is employed by the team and not Yamaha, blitzed the rest of the non-works men and also finished ahead of Andrea Dovizioso on the factory Ducati GP15 - something he hopes will put him in contention for one of the ten works rides going in a season’s time.

“I’ve never been a factory rider, and that’s on everybody’s wish list. But there’s no point in being a factory rider on something not competitive. So my ideal situation is that I ride at the level or a bit better than I have done this year and next year, and then I’m in the shop window for these factory bikes that might become available,” said Smith, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

“Right now, you have to be looking at Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, Suzuki and KTM. Which means that there will be ten seats up for grabs. Considering I was sixth this season, realistically then you’re sixth pick for one of those seats. It depends how the Monopoly goes, and how everybody moves around. You’d like to think that in ‘17 and ‘18 I could pick up one of those seats.”