91Èȱ¬

Bradley Smith was delighted after overcoming injury to come ninth in the Italian MotoGP Grand Prix at Mugello.

Smith achieved his best ever MotoGP finish despite suffering a cracked wrist, a damaged finger and a black eye in two crashes ahead of the race.

The Oxfordshire rider, 22, will have a skin-graft operation on his finger and his wrist injury will be assessed.

"Ninth position is probably way better than I expected, especially after the crash," he told 91Èȱ¬ Sport.

"I made one mistake during the race, because trying to ride a MotoGP bike with my right arm isn't the best idea.

"But I picked up my pace - 49.5 seconds on the last lap - and I'm really happy with the end result."

Smith crashed on Friday afternoon and then during the warm-up for Sunday's race, which was won by defending MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo.

"I need to have the operation and then get myself fit, healthy and ready for Barcelona," Smith added.

"I definitely see some great positives and will keep on pushing."