Smith's BMW man Peter Hickman had no complaints after a strong weekend at the Oulton Park Bennetts British Superbike round where he took a

“Overall, it’s been a strong weekend and I can’t have too much to complain about. We’ve only had the bikes six weeks so from where we were at round one at Silverstone to where we are now is like night and day and the potential in the new BMW is massive," said Hickman.

"I ran strongly in both the dry and wet and qualifying on the front row was a huge boost to us all and I felt that I had the pace for the podium in both races.

I got caught in a group of other riders in the first race and couldn’t take the lines I wanted but I learnt a lot about the bike and how it behaves when out on track with other riders so sixth was a good result.

"Unfortunately, there was a discrepancy with the tyre pressure at the beginning of the second race and we had to go to the back of the grid so to come through to 11th, which could and, perhaps, should have been ninth was pleasing.

"The team have worked mega as always, and we’ve put ourselves in a good position for the rounds ahead.”