BRADLEY Smith was encouraged by the strides his new Red Bull KTM team made across the MotoGP weekend in Jerez.

The 26-year-old from Forest Hill claimed a season’s best finish of 14th, following a variety of weather conditions in Spain.

It remains a steep learning curve for the factory team, but Smith is pleased by the rate of progress.

He said: “It’s been solid weekend for us, as from Friday we made a good start in both the damp and dry conditions.

“Added to that was a positive Saturday with a great time in the morning that nearly got us through to Q2.

“Qualifying was solid but it was tricky in the race, as we’d never run with these kind of track temperatures with a hard front tyre, so it’s still a learning process.

“With hindsight, we could have changed some things, but that’s what we learn as a team with this project.

“But what a step forward from the first three races and a great step to look forward to at the next race at Le Mans (May 21).”

Smith and teammate Pol Espargaro, who crashed out in Sunday’s race, were testing at Jerez yesterday to accumulate more valuable data.

Team manager Mike Leitner said: “This weekend has been very positive for us.

“All the effort from the company for us to utilise this new engine is proof of the hard work from everyone at the factory.

“We showed clearly during the practice sessions this was a good move and this gave us confidence and strength for the race.

“Bradley scored two points with a good race.

“We should be happy to score these points here taking the positive because a crash can happen to anyone during a race weekend.”