BRADLEY Smith endured a frustrating start to the MotoGP season after an 18th place finish in the opening round.

The Oxfordshire rider, who started 20th on the grid, rallied to the edge of the point-scoring positions, before a front tyre fade after just ten laps at Qatar’s Losail International Circuit saw him slip back through the field.

The issue meant KTM rider Smith was unable to compete with the leading riders, his loss of pace seeing him cross the line in 18th.

And he was understandably disappointed after making ground on the leaders in the early part of the race.

“For the first ten laps everything was working quite well,” he said.

“Then I started to struggle with the front tyre and a lot of understeer.

“This was not something we had in any of the tests and the lap-times slowly dropped off.”

Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) beat Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) by just 0.027 seconds to take victory.