Ben Spies held his hands up and took full responsibility for an early accident in that contributed to his final
MotoGP practice session in Qatar being 'wasted'.
The Texan had just embarked on a race simulation when he lost the front-end of his Factory Yamaha. Spies then suffered an electrical problem on his spare bike, leaving him eleventh by the close of the session, having completed just eight laps.
“It was a rough session tonight, we've had a good weekend up to now, unfortunately tonight was the most important session for us,” said Spies. “I went out to do a race simulation and I think I didn't let the front tyre heat up properly. I need to check the data to confirm it but I put the blame firmly on myself for it. Unfortunately the second bike just didn't run right so a wasted session for us.”
“Unfortunately Ben crashed and we couldn't test a different set up,” added team director Massimo Meregalli. “When he jumped on the second bike it had an electrical problem that didn't permit us to continue with the session. We tried to fix it but it wasn't possible within the time so we have missed a session. The guys are going to have a long night to be ready for tomorrow.”
Team-mate
Jorge Lorenzo was fastest.