Monster Yamaha’s Bradley Smith is just a handful of points away from nailing down sixth place in the 2015 MotoGP points standings, beating the works Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso and fellow Brit Cal Crutchlow for top satellite rider.

The Oxfordshire rider had a difficult time of it in Australia but bounced back to full effect at Sepang with his second-best result of the season, taking fourth while Dovizoso ended in the gravel as a result of some contact with Crutchlow.

It was an important result for a couple of reasons. Cal Crutchlow was on a roll and had beaten me to be the top Brit in the last three. I wanted to be the top Brit, the top factory satellite bike and beat teammate Pol and it all happened. Psychologically it was an important result to show that even though the 2016 contract is all signed, I can still put in that type of performance. It’s re-cemented those performances earlier in the year and it was in extreme heat and humidity. After three races in two weeks I still had the edge and motivation, which is crucial to succeed,” said Smith.

“To have an 18-point lead over the factory Ducati of Andrea Dovizioso in the battle for sixth place in the Championship with one round to go is a dream come true. I honestly thought seventh position would be our target, and I would be ecstatic to achieve sixth.

Smith had been in trouble at Phillip Island and could only muster a tenth-place finish, unsure of what the problem was but having a look at Stefan Bradl on the ART Aprilia in Malaysia gave him some direction for the team to pull.

“I was in the middle of a little bit of a nightmare because at Phillip Island in Australia we struggled into tenth place and I wasn’t really sure if it was the tyres or actually me and a lack of confidence on the track after I crashed on the out lap in Saturday practice. I tried to put it all behind me and enjoyed those four days in Malaysia before the race and felt so good in the heat after all the training and then ended up 14th after the first day – the nightmare continues.

“I sat down with the guys and knew we had to do something radical and change from the base setting we’d had all season. Despite its success we had to step away from it and it’s a very hard decision to make. To go in a new direction was a bit of a risk and it was scary to have to go through Q1 to get into Q2, which brought back memories of Argentina when it had happened last. It’s not fun but we sailed through it and then did well to qualify on the third row of the grid for the race.

“We’d been playing defensive, just trying to bat it back but I felt some progress in that second qualifying session and the drive was starting to come. In the warm up I followed Stefan Bradl on the Aprilia and learnt quite a lot, which I never thought I’d be saying. I told the team what I’d learnt and they made some more adjustments for the race and it paid off.”