Yamaha Factory Racing rider Ben Spies takes front row start for Motorland Aragon GP – MotoGP news
Yamaha Factory Racing rider Ben Spies has scored third place on the grid for the Motorland Aragon Grand Prix on Saturday, September 17, 2011.
Spies’ teammate Jorge Lorenzo will be leading the second row for the 14th MotoGP event in Spain.
The young Texan rider was able to gradually improve his pace through the weekend with enhancement of his M1 setup. During the Qualifying Practice session at Aragon, he was aiming to get a top seat. It did not look possible in the beginning but later in the session, he managed to get past Randy de Puniet and Andrea Dovizioso.
Spies said, “The whole weekend has been pretty good for me, I’m pretty happy with it. We struggled a little bit this morning but the bike’s working really well. We looked over a bit of data and tried to find the best compromise.”
With 30 minutes on the countdown, Spies was able to achieve his goal and surpassed his teammate in the lap times. At the start of the session, he was able to get in top seats but could not stand there for long and Spies claimed the position.
Spies was able to settle for a third place while using the soft tyres on his M1. He also praised the efforts of his factory crew. Pace is the main problem for Spies, otherwise he very competitive.
The defending world champion started the session a bit later than other riders. In the beginning, he was running with good times but could not maintain it for long and dropped to mid positions.
With a late effort in the session, he was just able to score a fourth seat on the grid for third Spanish GP in the 2011 MotoGP season.
Lorenzo said, “We struggled here last year and we are here struggling again this year, maybe even more. We have many problems with rear grip; we are not getting enough traction to be really fast. Tomorrow I think the maximum we can get is third place on the podium unless something very strange happens so that is the goal we have.”
Lorenzo also claimed that the stretch of the straight is not suitable for the factory M1. It lacks the pace which will drop it to lower positions. On the contrary, Honda RCV was very fast across the stretches than its Yamaha and Ducati rivals.
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