BRADLEY Smith made a strong start with the fifth fastest time in practice ahead of the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello yesterday.

The Forest Hill MotoGP rider has fond memories of the circuit after winning 2009’s 125cc race.

Smith hit the ground running yesterday, clocking the eighth best time in the first practice session on his Monster Yamaha Tech3 machine.

He improved it in the second session to get into the top five, ahead of teammate Pol Espargaro, who was tenth.

The performance gave Smith, who finished sixth at Le Mans a fortnight ago, encouragement heading into today’s qualifying session.

He said: “I’m pleased with how the bike feels at this circuit, which I am a big fan of.

“We have been fast from the word go, which is a good opening to the weekend, especially as we have struggled here a little bit in the past.

“I was able to ride the bike exactly how I wanted to and I sampled both types of compound for the tyres, so now we have a good indication of which direction to head towards.

“I’m even happier as I still feel there is room for improvement as my lap was not quite perfect.

“Overall, we’re less than two tenths back from the factory Yamaha of (Jorge) Lorenzo, so we are in a good place.”

Smith was a tenth of a second ahead of Cal Crutchlow, with whom he is in a battle to become MotoGP’s top Brit.

The more experienced Honda man crashed out in France and has just a single-point advantage over Smith after the opening five races of the season.

The Oxfordshire rider will be hoping for better than last year, when he fell early in wet conditions.