The Englishman came home as top 'Satellite' rider and finished ahead of team-mate Pol Espargaro for the ninth time in eleven races in 2015 but admitted it was hard to feel happy after he had aimed for the top six on Saturday.
Warm-up pace was promising for Smith as he demonstrated a pace that suggested he could run with the 'Factory' Ducatis in the 22-lap race. Yet, while he made what is becoming a customary fast start, the 24-year old was unable to match their pace and had no answer for Dani Pedrosa when the Spaniard snatched sixth on lap seven.
"It's difficult because your goals change, especially this weekend," said Smith. "Yesterday was going so well and then this morning as well. It's frustrating to know you can do these things but you need an extra bit of a helping hand or that next level of machinery. I had a great warm-up. I was able to run high 56s at the beginning and then high 56s / low 57s at the end. That's what I needed today to be with the Ducatis. We can do it. We did have a setting to do it. We're being restricted with what we have in the race situation.
"Even with the 38 [hard] it would have been really tricky. I might have had a slightly better front tyre in some places but it was going to be worse for others. I am convinced we did the best job we could have today. The frustrating thing for me is it's the eleventh race with the same problems.
"When the temperatures go up and the grip goes down then I can't do the same pace as the other guys. It's something we're working on. I know we have some more tiny ideas but a lot of it comes down to the fact we have the same package from the beginning of the year until now so there's only so much we can do."
"When there's less grip for me I use the rea r tyre a lot to slow down the bike. That's my riding style. It slides more on the track it means you have to brake earlier and stress the front tyre a bit more. It's frustrating because it's always the same comments but percentage-wise we're making improvements here and there. The big chunk would come from an upgrade but we won't get it so we need to work with what we have."
Still, despite his frustrations, Smith was pleased to finish ahead of his team-mate again, which has now seen him stretch his lead over the next best 'Satellite' rider to 25 points in the championship.
"Even on a bad or difficult day I was able to come home as top satellite. I would have liked to have come back with Dovi and Dani, especially as they're the ones I'm battling with in the championship. Whether that's a realistic target or not they're still my competition.
"When I started in front of them I was there and I wanted to stay with them. It was six seconds. It wasn't a complete dis aster but I believe those six seconds weren't possible to find today. We had the pace this morning. It was just the conditions this afternoon that hampered us."
