BRADLEY Smith left Saxony in high spirits, believing his tenth-place finish at the Sachsenring had been brewing all season.

The 27-year-old, from Forest Hill, impressively produced his best performance of 2018 in Sunday’s German MotoGP.

His six-point haul came close to doubling his tally for the year as he now sits 19th in the rider standings with 13 points.

Smith also recorded Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s first top-ten of the season as the Austrian manufacturer, in their second season in the premier class of motorcycle racing, continue to try to make an impact further up the grid.

The Oxfordshire rider, whose previous best finish this year had been 13th, was delighted his hard work materialised into a strong result at the weekend.

He said: “It was nice to be able to get the result that we knew was there and we’ve had that potential all season.

“For some reason or another Sundays have been the disappointing days, particularly in Assen two weeks ago (17th-placed finish) where I felt I could have done a similar job as in Germany.”

KTM have been threatening a result of this kind throughout the opening eight rounds of the season.

A sign of things to come in Germany could have been when teammate Pol Espargaro, whose race ended after three corners, set the quickest time in the morning warm-up.

Despite qualifying 17th, Smith made a strong start and held tenth place from half-way to claim his best result since the Australian GP in 2017.

He said: “We have to be happy and we worked hard all weekend.

“I was able to hold with (Dani) Pedrosa and (Johann) Zarco for a long time and regrouped after a small mistake.

“I could then pull away from Hafizh (Syahrin) and bring home some good points – six in fact after only scoring seven all season.

“Finally a good finish and we were able to show where the KTM can be.”

The next round is at Brno, Czech Republic on Sunday, August 5.