Estoril MotoGP: Ben Spies aims to ride in final round

Ben Spies is determined to ride in this weekend’s final MotoGP round in Valencia, despite the American aggravating an old left ankle injury in Estoril yesterday.

The Texan’s Estoril debut ended in disaster when he crashed heavily on the second of two sighting laps at the fourth corner.

The 26-year-old dislocated his left ankle and was forced to watch the majority of the 28-lap as a frustrated spectator in the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 pit box.

It was an identical injury to the one Spies suffered in Le Mans and Silverstone earlier this year but he is adamant he will be fit to race in Valencia this weekend.

The 2009 World Superbike champion said: “I knew the race was going to be tough because I had never turned a lap in the dry on this track. The first sighting lap was fine and on the second I just made a mistake at turn four

” Aoyama and Capirossi were in front of me and they nearly did the same thing. I just didn’t have the left side of the tyre heated up enough and it spat me off.

“I’m frustrated because I’m sure even in the dry I could have had a fairly good race. I’ve hurt my left ankle again and it’s pretty painful right now.

“I’ll have some more scans in Spain but my intention is to go to Valencia and race and hopefully do the test too. We’ll have to wait and see but that’s my plan right now.”

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 boss Herve Poncharal said he was confident Spies would be able to end his impressive rookie season in Valencia.

He said: “I was standing on the grid when Race Direction told me that Ben had crashed at turn four and I feel really sorry for him because all weekend he’s done an incredible job.

“He’d never seen this track and in atrocious conditions he was always one of the fastest on track. When you look at the race it is not impossible to imagine Ben being capable of fighting for the podium again.

“We hope he’ll be fine for Valencia and I know already that he wants to race.”

For the full story and an exclusive interview with Spies on his crash, see Wednesday’s issue of MCN.