Yamaha Factory Racing’s Ben Spies takes podium in season finale at Valencia GP – MotoGP news
Yamaha Factory Racing rider Ben Spies took second place on the podium at Valencia Grand Prix.
The Texan was able to finish his MotoGP season in a decent way and positively for 2012.
Spies took third place on the grid set for the season’s last race at Ricardo Tormo circuit at Spain.
Spies said, “The conditions were really tough today, with the rain it was so difficult to know how hard to push so I was just concentrating on bringing the bike home. We were able to follow Dani and Dovi and get past them eventually and then get past Casey
when he made a small mistake.”
Almost every rider on the grid claimed the Valencia GP to be one tough race day. Alike many, Spies also endured a rough race day, with unstable conditions.
The weather forecast showed that it might rain on the raceday, but the race started in almost dry conditions.
The last five laps were held under rain and which helped the factory Yamaha M1 rider, Spies to shoot up. He hunted the race leader Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) who made a minor mistake during a turn.
Spies expressed the critical race situation in the wet. He said that it is very difficult to assess the margin for pushing the bike. The track was slippery and volatile for crashing.
As he was leading the race, the final bend of the last lap took away his hopes. Stoner chose the inside line for corner exit and throttled up to pass ahead Spies across the finish line with fraction of a second.
Though he could have won the race but Spies is still content with second place on the podium. It was a good season finish, in the absence of his teammate Jorge Lorenzo.
During the last two events at Phillip Island and Sepang, Spies and his teammate were sidelined due to a heavy crash during the QP session at Australia.
Nakasuga said, “I was really surprised with sixth position in the race! In the beginning I was very nervous because of the weather condition so my main target was to complete the race. I am used to Japanese races which only last 30 minutes so I was worried
that I might not be able to keep my concentration.”
The Japanese test rider did a good job as substitute for former MotoGP world champion, Lorenzo.
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