Factory Yamaha Racing rider Ben Spies says he has racing DNA in him – MotoGP news
Ben Spies rider for Factory Yamaha Racing, who finished at third place at the Losail, Qatar test, feels he is more meant for racing more than testing.
Spies is eager to get back on track for the four-day race weekend, practice stating on Thursday evening.
The 2010 rookie has kept his team mostly unchanged, is in hurry to get in the pit-lane action soon. Spies has been riding well enough to keep up the name as he was picked from the Yamaha satellite team, Monster Yamaha Tech3. After Rossi shifted to
Ducati for the 2011 season Spies was the best choice for Yamaha team to pick.
“It feels really good to be here as part of the Factory Team, we worked really hard last year to get here. I've got a great crew around me,” he said. Spies has worked with most of the guys present in his crew this year, in different teams, which is
more helpful for the rider to be understood what he needs. “Everything has gone really smoothly in the tests, I have to say I'm more of a racer than a tester so I'm pretty impatient now to get to it and see what we can do,” said Spies.
As the final test session was struck by desert storm leaving the circuit covered with a layer of sand, made it difficult for the riders to pick the pace at start. Riders still managed to hit the track with a slow pace and heated up the session as the
track conditions got better by the evening passed.
Despite of the fast sand storm Spies still tried his best and run faster than his teammate Jorge Lorenzo. He was in third place with 1 minute and 56.294 seconds, merely six tenths off Stoner’s pace. Jorge Lorenzo was left deep at seventh place with
1 minute 56.707 seconds.
Spies was concentrating on small tweaks for getting more traction out of his M1. Now he feels more confident to line up for the Sunday’s Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar. Although Honda was the chart dominator on all the test sessions with same good
names Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa following, but the Yamahas were the only machines to ride close enough to Hondas. Yamaha’s M1 lack some engine power compared to new 2011 RC212V, but will be a great competition.
“We tried a few different things and improved the bike some more,” he said.
The Yamaha team has got couple of day to analyze the date gathered from the last test session and make some further improvements as there will be more riding opportunities before Sunday’s race. “Last year we saw that the M1 worked well at every track,
it's Yamaha's strong point and I think it's the same this year,” he added.
Tags: