Ben Spies of Yamaha Factory Racing earns fourth place at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca – MotoGP news
Yamaha Factory Racing rider Ben Spies earned fourth place at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the final moments of the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix.
Spies claimed to be the fastest American rider in the home event among Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) and Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech3).
Spies said, “I got a really good start but going uphill to the steep part of the track basically we didn’t have enough power. I got stuck behind Valentino, I tried to get around as quick as I could but he’s really good on the brakes so it was pretty tough
but I did the best I could.”
Spies was trapped in traffic from the start, where he awaited to make a pass over Valentino Rossi. The Ducati Team’s Italian rider was lucky to move in front of Spies but later as the riders parted, he played his trick to pass Rossi.
He further said, “Once we got around him it was quite a big gap to Dovizioso but I just kept my head down and kept going. I’m happy we were able to track him down and get fourth. It was a really good race for us it just got spoilt in the first five hundred
feet.”
The American rider was also lucky to escape injuries during the QP session crash. Recalling the race, after beating Rossi he was leaning far behind Andrea Dovizioso but still he made a good a effort to track him down and hang on to his tail and finally overtake
him for a fourth place finish.
The American rider said that he would have been glad to score a podium finish at his home ground with Yamaha’s 50th anniversary celebrations in grand prix racing.
His another strong point was that he had found a good race package for the Laguna Seca, which helped him score a fourth place on the starting grid.
He claimed that he tried his maximum to give his team a podium finish but the race situation was completely unpredictable. In his opinion, he was good enough to challenge Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa in the race however, he could not do so.
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