WET conditions dampened Danny Kent’s confidence in Argentina as he just missed out on a points finish in the second round of the Moto2 Championship on Sunday.

Having qualified in eighth spot, a poor opening lap had the Chippenham-born rider battling further down the field than he would have liked and although he clawed his way up from 21st to 16th place in the closing laps, he could not find a way past Spaniard Luis Salom on the last lap to finish in the points for a second week.

“Obviously, it’s not the result we were hoping for,” said Kent.

“Having a great weekend until the race; we went into the race with very mixed conditions.

“They were conditions that were new to me in Moto2. I’ve not had them before.

“The first half of the race; I had no confidence at all, especially in the wet parts with slicks.

“This is something I need to improve on as we lost too much time then.

“In the last five laps when it was dry, it wasn’t so bad. We’d lost too much at the beginning.

“I’m disappointed and said sorry to the team. We made a step forward from the first race but hopefully we can recover in Austin.”

After a week of high humidity and high temperatures on Sunday morning came the unexpected rain, turning team plans on their head.

The Leopard Racing Team had 20 minutes at their disposal in the morning warm-up to make the best of the situation, Kent and teammate Miguel Oliveira ending in 15th and 17th respectively.

But the race proved to be a difficult one, with Kent losing his advantage from an impressive qualifying.

Kent blamed his performance in the opening laps on a lack of feeling with his Kalex, unable to perform in mixed conditions.

Neither rider had ever raced mixed conditions such as these and were learning with each lap.

Three laps from the end, Kent forced his way through the field after his poor start, coming back to end the day in 16th place and just 0.159s from the points.

Kent next heads to Texas where the Grand Prix of the Americas, the third race of the 2016 season, will take place on Sunday, the track where he won the Moto3 race on route to the world title last season.

Kent sits in 10th place in the world standings on 10 points, 24 behind early pace-setter Thomas Luthi.