Britain's Bradley Smith almost doubled his entire 2018 MotoGP points score with a tenth place at the Sachsenring and put it down to an electronic strategy that preserved his rear tyre better than those around him.

Until Sunday, Smith had only scored seven points but took six for tenth place and equalled Red Bull KTM's best finish of the year so far - Mika Kallio's result at the Red Bull Ring.

"For some reason or another Sundays have been the disappointing days, particularly in Assen two weeks ago where I felt I could have done a similar job as today. We have to be happy and we worked hard all weekend," said Smith.

"I was able to hold with Pedrosa and Zarco for a long time and regrouped after a small mistake. I could then pull away from Hafizh and bring home some good points; six in fact after only scoring seven all season.

 "I was working all weekend with the electronics. It was a really important thing that I thought would be necessary for the race.

"Once I was behind Dani I could see that he was saving the tyre quite a lot and that reminded me to also go to the softer switches I had and to look after the tyre the best I could.

"I think it was Iannone who was catching me at one point in the race so I passed Hafizh and put my head down for 6-7 laps and pulled the gap.

"In the final five laps I had no tyre left but I think that was similar to everybody. I think we played it right and it means our electronic guys are doing a fantastic job."