Monster Yamaha’s Bradley Smith increased his lead as the top satellite rider in MotoGP after a solid points haul in the rain at Silverstone, and even though the rider lost out on the battle for sixth to fellow countryman, Scott Redding he definitely improved his pace in the wet, leaving Smith feeling positive.

But the Brit felt the Ducati machines may have had a slight advantage in the wet as they did more testing in Brno and for the Yamaha man he had only completed a few laps on his bike in the rain. But with limited experience this year Smith is satisfied that he has improved from what he described as being ‘dreadful’ in the rain, to putting down a good pace yesterday.

The leading British rider in the series was a little disappointed that the race was red-flagged at the very start, as he got himself in a good position in pit lane after the bike change to make a challenge for the front. But he understood that for race direction a stoppage was needed on the grounds of rider safety, as the race was declared dry and swiftly changed to wet as the rain fell heavily on to the track.

“I thought I did the smart thing, I pushed on the out lap and got round to the pits first, so at least I was queuing up in first position ready for the re-start. I guess I was disappointed that they red flagged it as I thought I was one step ahead of the game, and then I got shunned down, but a bit disappointed from that point of view, but the races difficult,” said Smith at the circuit.

“The grip level was not too bad as it gave the riders confidence but then a lot of people were aquaplaning going into corners as the rear was quite scary. The last time we rode in the rain was Austin, I think we have done twelve laps in the rain this season so I think Ducati called the right shots as they rode quite a lot in the rain in Brno and maybe they setup their bike a bit better than we did. I didn’t lose too many points to my championship rivals and I extended my points lead a bit in the satellite championship, so all in all it was a positive day.

“I would have liked to have gone for a podium, but everyone brought their A game to the race and I slightly missed out. It was slightly disappointing with the battle with Scott - he had a little bit too much on me to hold him to that top six position but I am happy to cross the line.”

At first Smith wanted to take a gamble and go out on the harder rear tyre, as he thought the rain would ease, but Bridgestone ensured that all the racers went out on the softer front and rear wet tyre compounds, and as the rain got increasingly worse Smith knew he had made the right decision to stick with the softer option.

Smith added: “Originally I wanted to go with the hard rear and I tried to get Bridgestone to let me do that, but they made the right decision. I was basing my gamble on the fact that there wasn’t enough rain and I thought it would hold off a bit more, but in the end it rained more.

“The team did a great job as last time we rode in the rain we were five seconds slower than Lorenzo, and last year in the rain we were dreadful. Now it leaves me optimistic if we have rain for the rest of the season.”