Jerez MotoGP: Ben Spies ‘super-happy’ with 11th

Ben Spies declared himself ‘super-happy’ after the Texan made an impressive debut at the Jerez circuit in Spain today. 

The Texan underlined again how quickly he can master a new track when he surged into the top seven during today’s opening free practice on just his 10th lap at the Spanish venue. 

The reigning World Superbike champion eventually finished in a respectable 11th place with a best time of 1.41.200 that was less than a second away from a top five finish. 

Spies, who was boosted by a career best fifth place on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 debut in Qatar earlier this month, said: “I’m super-happy with today. It’s 11th and I’m over a second off the pace but after only one hour at this track I’m really happy and I don’t think it could have gone too much better than it did. 

“I’m only one second away from being really competitive and my quickest lap was one of those when I didn’t really nail it and could say it was a great lap. And I didn’t follow anybody either. I wanted to learn by myself and I know there is a lot of time to come from me and I’m sure too we can make the bike better. There is definitely more time I can find with the fast section of right-handers at the end of the lap.

“They aren’t really hard but you’ve got to be in a good rhythm to really make up some time. Now I’m really looking forward to tomorrow because I like the track. It’s one of those tracks if you mess a turn up, three turns later you’re still scratching your head trying to get it back. But that is good for me because I really like flowing tracks and this is definitely one of them. I’m a lot more relaxed going into tomorrow knowing I’ll be pretty competitive.”

Fellow American Colin Edwards was seventh quickest today with a best time of 1.40.913.