Ben Spies did not get the results he was hoping for at Estoril. After a successful qualifying session that earned him a second row start, Spies crashed out of the Portugal GP.
The MotoGP Yamaha team said that a tool used to temporarily block the fuel overflow pipe was left on Spies’ bike during the race. That made it difficult for Spies to accelerate, and to brake, and eventually caused him to crash.
It was the second race in a row that the young Yamaha rider failed to finish. Spies is currently in 14th place, having scored just 10 points so far this season.
But Spies and the Yamaha team are confident that they can turn it around at Le Mans. After the Estoril event, the MotoGP riders had an official testing session, which Spies and the Yamaha team used to solidify competitive settings on the M1.
“We left Estoril with some good points from the test and some valuable information,” said team director Massimo Meregalli. “We are going to Le Mans with good confidence to continue our strong performance. Jorge intends to keep his performance high; he has already proved he is strong at Le Mans. Ben has had a challenging start to the year however we had a really good test at Estoril and we are confident he will kick start his championship attack on Sunday in France.”
Spies will be looking to “restart” his 2011 season at Le Mans, but the Yamaha rider hasn’t had the best luck in France. In 2010, Spies crashed out of the Le Mans race on the 7th lap.
Regardless, Spies needs to get his season back on track and he’ll make his best effort to do so next weekend in France.
“I’ve had a really relaxing few days off after Estoril back home in Como, Italy,” Spies said. “I had a good chance to get out on my bicycle and really work off some of the frustration from the race. Having felt so good at the start I really believed we could have delivered some strong results in Portugal. Anyway, we all move on together and as a team we’re coming to France determined to make up for it and really kick off our 2011 season again.”
[Photo Courtesy of Benspies.com]
