BRADLEY Smith was delighted after riding what he called “a perfect race” in the Austrian Moto GP.

The Oxfordshire ace received a great reception from the fans after coming 14th for the Red Bull KTM team on their home track at Spielberg.

Smith, the only member of the team racing at the Red Bull Ring following the shoulder injury suffered by Pol Espargaro the previous week in the Czech Republic, collected two championship points to take his season’s tally to 15.

The 27-year-old, who clocked the sixth fastest lap-time in the morning’s warm-up after qualifying in 13th, made his customary bright start to the 28-lap dash and then settled into a chase with the likes of Alvaro Bautista, Andrea Iannone and Aleix Espargaro to get into the points.

After the race Smith said: “The nice thing is that we are learning more and more about the bike and made more improvements in the morning.

“The warm-up was a lot of fun and in cool track conditions the grip level was high and I could get the maximum out of the bike.

“In qualifying we were able to extract better performance, which is something I have been focusing on.

“I knew the race would be a bit of a struggle because the bike has its strengths, but when the track gets greasy then this is where we see some weaknesses.

“We finished ahead of some good riders on good bikes and I don’t think we can ask for much more.

“We pretty much defeated nearly all the satellite riders.

“I felt I made a perfect race and there was not much else I could have done. The team did a great job setting up the bike.”

Team manager Mike Leitner said: “Bradley did a very solid job and overall it was a good weekend.

“We hope we can continue our journey at Silverstone (for the British Moto GP on August 26) with two riders again.

“I think the team could see the big level of support in Austria and how many people are interested in our project. This gives us extra confidence and power to deliver more results in the future.”