Ben Spies baffled by early crash

Ben Spies had an eventful return to MotoGP action in Sepang today, the Texan recovering from an early crash to post the fifth fastest time as 2011 testing resumed in Malaysia.

Spies was on an out-lap having only completed three laps when the track opened at 10am this morning when he lost the front of his factory Yamaha YZR-M1 machine at Turn 14.

The 2009 World Superbike champion, who finished top rookie and non-factory rider in an impressive debut MotoGP campaign in 2010, told MCN: “I have no clue what happened. I was on my out-lap and I think it was my third lap and I lost the front and while it put a damper on testing some things, it made the day easier because we didn’t concentrate on anything and I just rode. I’m fine and it was just a ridiculous low-side. I told my guys I was going slowly and I don’t know what the hell happened. But I got straight up to speed.”

The early crash did little to dent the Texan’s confidence and he was occupying second place on the timesheets when he opted to stop early to avoid burnout in typically hot and humid conditions at the Sepang circuit.

He ended with a fastest time of 2.02.332 and he added: “It was a good day. We kind of set out to not do so many laps to not get so tired even though I’ve been doing a lot of training, it is different on the bike and you work different muscles and it can be easy to overdo it on the first day. I just wanted to do enough laps to get my head back up to speed but not do too much because we have a lot to look at with Yamaha and Bridgestone. I only went through two sets of tyres and worked on the electronics but mainly just letting me ride and get going again.”

Despite a relatively short run of only 29-laps, Spies was able to make some judgements about the new 2011 factory YZR-M1, which Yamaha hopes will continue its domination of the premier class.

Yamaha hasn’t lost the world title since 2007 and last season Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo romped to the title with a record points haul.

Spies said: “The bike is definitely better than last year but there is more to come from it as well. The bike definitely has got more power from Valencia and we have a couple of things we need to look at with two different engines, but as of right now we have a good baseline and hopefully it will get better. We want to test something hopefully again in two weeks and then we get to Qatar it will be nice to have something even faster. They’ve made a big improvement with power and it is better for me coming from Tech 3 to now. Everybody could see that last year the Yamaha was a little bit down on top speed and I don’t think it will be such a disadvantage this year.”

See the top ten times from day one at Sepang, here.