Valencia MotoGP: Valentino Rossi ‘curious’ about Ben Spies

Valentino Rossi has told MCN he is ‘curious’ to gauge the performance of reigning World Superbike champion Ben Spies during his Yamaha MotoGP debut in Valencia.

The Texan, who has raced in three previous MotoGP races for Suzuki, will ride a Yamaha YZR-M1 in the season’s final round as he prepares for his first full assault on the premier class series in 2010.

Spies produced a series of brilliant WSB performances to defeat Noriyuki Haga in a last race title decider against Noriyuki Haga in Portugal.

And Italian Rossi said he was looking forward to assessing Spies’ performance this weekend.

He told MCN: “I am very curious because it will be interesting to see how he performs

” For sure Ben is the fastest rider in World Superbikes, and he won the championship even though he had a lot of bad luck.

“He had a good bike and a good team but he demonstrated on the track a lot of times that he was faster than anybody else, even if he doesn’t know the tracks. I think he will be competitive.

“He is young and maybe he needs more time to adapt, especially to the Bridgestone tyres.” Rossi, who recently claimed a ninth world title with third position in a rain-lashed Sepang GP in Malaysia, said a top six finish would be a great result for Spies in this weekend’s Valencia clash.

He added: “If he is fighting in the second group in fifth or sixth position, that would be a good result.”