Ben Spies baffled by crash

American rider Ben Spies admitted he could not explain the cause of the crash that saw him fail to finish a second successive MotoGP race in 2010 at Le Mans.

The Texan was running in 11th position when he lost the front of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine at the third corner on lap seven.

It ended a tough French MotoGP debut for the reigning World Superbike champion who started the 28-lap race with a severely swollen left ankle after a big high-side in Saturday’s final practice session.

Spies said: “It was a tough weekend and I made it tough for myself. The crash on Saturday morning was my fault and missing a session didn’t help.

“I need as much track time as I can get so to miss a whole hour isn’t good. I got a good start and after the first two laps I got into a decent rhythm.

“Capirossi and Colin (Edwards) started to come back to me a little bit and I was feeling quite confident. But I looked up and saw Capirossi lose the front at the third corner and as soon as I tipped in I lost the front too and I was down.

“It was a weird crash but luckily I didn’t pick up any further injury. Now I can take this week off and rest and go to Mugello to push at 100 per cent.

“It has been a rough last couple of races but I’m still confident I can be closer to the front when things are right. I won’t obviously be winning races but I can be doing a lot better.”

Spies’ tumble came seconds after Loris Capirossi had lost control of his factory Suzuki GSV-R in identical circumstances.

The Italian veteran was also at a loss to explain what had happened and he said: “In the race I started steadily because the grip was not too good. After a couple of laps I felt a bit better and increased my rhythm and got past Colin, but in turn three I crashed.

“I leaned in and just lost the front, I don’t know why it happened and this is the third time I’ve crashed on the front and we will have to discover what’s causing it.

“During the weekend the feeling has been good and in warm-up I didn’t have any problems, but then in the race we struggled and I crashed.”