Oxford's Bradley Smith believes he is on the right track after equalling his best result this season by finishing sixth as Marc Marquez took victory at Sachsenring.

Starting from seventh on the grid, the 22-year-old held onto that place while he was comfortably able to streak away from a chasing pack that included MotoGP race winners Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden.

He moved into the top six on lap seven on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team YZR-M1 machine, and pushed hard to try and bridge a gap of close to three seconds to Alvaro Bautista in fifth.

He kept the Spaniard firmly in his sights throughout the race, but was happy to settle for a richly-deserved sixth place – which matched his finish in last month’s Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya.

The most pleasing aspect for the rookie was the 25-second gap to Marquez, which was the closest he has finished to first place in 2013.

Smith’s teammate, Cal Crutchlow, was runner-up, with Valentino Rossi third.

It was the first time two British riders had finished inside the top six in the premier class since the Donington Park round back in 1993.

Smith said: “I am truely happy with this sixth place. I got a good start and I was really pleased with my pace for most of the race.

“It is particularly pleasing because this is a track where I expected to struggle more because it has a lot of left-hand corners and you are constantly pushing with the left part of your body.

“That’s where my injury is, but I felt strong for the whole race.

“I’m also pleased that we managed to reduce the gap to the winner by another seven seconds and I think 25 seconds is not too bad at the moment.

“There were so many positives, but I had a little bit of an issue with rear grip and I think we can still improve our setting to make that better.

“I still believe I did a really good job and now the next objective is to get closer to Bautista.”

Now he is looking forward to the United States GP at Laguna Seca next Sunday.

“This result has given me a lot of confidence,” he said. “It is a very difficult track and while I did test there earlier this year on a production bike I am still expecting a tough weekend.”

Standings (top five): 1 M Marquez 138 pts, 2 D Pedrosa 136, 3 J Lorenzo 127, 4 C Crutchlow 107, 5 V Rossi 101.