BRADLEY SMITH thrilled home fans with a miraculous ride to come second in the AirAsia British Moto 2 Grand Prix at Silverstone yesterday.

Revelling in the wet conditions, the 20-year-old Oxfordshire rider produced an incredible ride to storm through from 28th place on the grid to finish runner-up to winner Stefan Bradl.

Smith had endured a nightmare Saturday and wanted to go home.

He was hit with a 1,000-euros fine for riding the wrong way up the pitlane, while an electrical fault to his Tech 3 Honda bike, meant he was a disastrous 28th fastest in qualifying.

After celebrating his second place on the podium, Smith said “On Saturday, I just kind of wanted to pack up and go home,” said Smith.

“But when I saw the rain this morning, I knew things would turn around.

“We have got a great bike in the wet, and I knew I could make my way through the crowd.”

Smith made up 13 places on the first lap alone, was into the top six by lap four, and past fellow Briton Steve Redding for third on lap seven.

Kenan Sofuoglu was second at that stage, having also got past Redding, but when the Technomag-CIP rider fell at Club with six laps to go, Smith was able to move up to a glorious second.

The result lifts Smith to seventh place in the standings.

Moto 2 GP result: 1 S Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) 44mins 10.236secs, 2 B Smith (Tech 3 Racing +7.601), 3 M Pirro (Gresini Racing Moto2 +12.241), 4 J Cluzel (NGM Forward Racing) +17.271.

Standings: 1 S Bradl 127pts, 2 S Corsi (Ita) Ioda 65, 3 Y Takahashi (Moriwaki) 56, 4= Iannone (Suter) 49, J Simon (Suter) 49, 6 T Luthi (Suter) 48, 7 B Smith (Tech 3.47).

Meanwhile, Casey Stoner mastered dreadful conditions to win the British MotoGP and overtake Jorge Lorenzo at the top of the standings.

The Repsol Honda rider started from pole position and was untroubled as he made light of pouring rain to win by 15.159 seconds from Andrea Dovizioso.

Defending champion Lorenzo suffered a high-speed crash while Ben Spies and Marco Sim-oncelli also tumbled out.

Colin Edwards, riding with a broken collarbone, was third.

There were no British riders on display after home star Cal Crutchlow crashed in qualifying on Saturday and broke his collarbone.

Moto GP result: 1 C Stoner (Repsol Honda) 47mins, 53.459secs, 2 A Dovizioso ((Repsol Honda) +15.159, 3 C Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha) + 21.480, 4 N Hayden (Ducati) + 26.984, 5 A Bautista (Suzuki) + 35.569, 6 V Rossi (Ducati) + 1.04.526.

l Read Bradley Smith’s exclusive column in Thursday’s Oxford Mail.