Britain’s Bradley Smith felt he had the pace to beat Andrea Iannone in yesterday’s Sachsenring MotoGP race yesterday but said another poor qualifying performance put paid to a top-five result.

The Monster Yamaha man ended the day in sixth and hopped to joint fifth in the title chase but got held up behind Yonny Hernandez for too many laps, allowing the works Ducati man to escape.

“I was trying to get into that top five today, I certainly felt had the pace for Iannone but lost too much time at the beginning of the race with Hernandez. I went up the inside on the first lap but ran wide, every time I did that, I was wide and he came back, and it went on for three laps longer than it should have,” said Smith, speaking at the track.

“Everyone is close on laptimes and I can’t give Iannone anything. Qualifying in ninth place doesn’t help so that’s where it all stems from and that is something that will be a main focus for me in the second half.

“They manage rear grip better than any bike in the championship I have been on track with. Their edge grip and drive grip is extremely good and it’s always been their forte. It’s hard to battle that on stop-go corners.

“I am joint fifth in the championship we are in a completely different position from 12 months ago, it’s nice the difference a year makes.”