MALMESBURY'S Danny Kent admitted to being 'disappointed' with his ninth place finish in the Moto3 world championship race at his home Grand Prix of Silverstone, writes Alannah Fellows.

Kent had hoped for better after his podium finish in the Czech Republic on his previous race – but at least he is racing up with the pace on his Red Bull Husqvarna Ajo machine and he finished just five seconds behind race winner Alex Rins.

Kent finished all practice and qualifying sessions in the top 12.

With the home fans spurring him on he was able to top the second free practise session of the weekend and he lined up in 12th position, on the fourth row of the grid.

After a slow start Kent had slipped back to 15th, however he was able to fight his way back up into the top 10.

Kent said: "Ninth position is good, but because it’s my home Grand Prix, I’m a little disappointed.

"We wanted to fight for the podium, but we were still only five seconds back.

"For some reason, the temperature of the bike was really high and this made for an even more difficult race.

"We made an effort over the weekend to find a better top speed, because this is where we were losing compared to the other riders.

"Now we have to sit down and see where we can improve. We hope we can have a repeat performance of Brno (Czech Republic) when we go to Misano in two weeks' time.”