Soft tyre choice backfires for Bradley Smith

Bradley Smith’s first MotoGP race on home soil at Silverstone proved to be a frustrating affair after he ended the 20-lap clash down in ninth position.

The 22-year-old blamed his decision to race Bridgestone’s soft rear tyre on his failure to take eighth from factory Ducati rider Nicky Hayden.

Smith, who has now scored eight top 10 finishes in his rookie premier class campaign, told MCN: “I don’t think the soft tyre was a good option. We had a lot of movement and a lot of spinning, especially on the left side of the tyre, and we just lacked something, which is quite frustrating.

“It’s also a reality check. Coming from Brno where everything went well, it just proves that there are still some weekends where you just can’t find the key, no matter how hard you try, and its important not to crash on those weekends, learn as much as possible, try as much as possible, and try and gain as much information as you can.

“We never had the pace to chase the guys in front. I was really disappointed because we really never had any pace, even from the off we were struggling. The hard tyre worked and that’s the frustrating thing.

“Both (Stefan) Bradl and (Alvaro) Bautista used the soft tyre but I couldn’t follow or make it work. We did what we could. I don’t feel like I left anything else out on that track.

“I knew where I was weak and made sure I got the best out of the bike without crashing because I’d have been kicking myself if I did. I’m still the same rider I was last weekend, but last weekend it worked and this weekend it didn’t, and I don’t really know why.

“I was doing the same thing if not working harder than last weekend, but this place didn’t seem to work for me, and you just have to understand that maybe it was one of those weekends and move on to Misano.”