Top ten target for Smith after qualifying woe

Bradley Smith has set himself a target of finishing inside the top ten at the San Marino MotoGP after failing to progress to Q2 this afternoon.

The series rookie missed out on a Q2 slot by 0.175 seconds, setting a best lap of 1m 38.869s.

Smith suffered another spill on the M1 on his final lap at turn 14, walking away unhurt from the incident as he qualified in 13th position.

It was the 22-year-old's second crash this weekend and the Tech 3 Yamaha rider hopes to eradicate the problem as he focuses on breaking into the top ten at Misano tomorrow.

"Unfortunately today didn't go according to plan at all and being 13th on the grid is not ideal. I improved my pace from yesterday by over a second but clearly it is not enough," he said.

"I've crashed twice now this weekend by losing the front, so it shows we have a problem and we will have a good look at the data tonight to find some improvements in that area.

"We made a really good step overnight with the bike for FP3, but this afternoon we didn't really make any progress," added Smith.

"It looks like we are at the limit of this package but I don't believe that we are. I think that there is more to come from it and when you look at the lap time from this package we're not actually too far away but we need to improve because everyone else has.

"It is going to be a very tough race and if I can get a top 10 finish I will class that as an amazing result."