Mugello MotoGP: Ben Spies rues early errors

Ben Spies said two early mistakes cost him the chance to follow up his brilliant debut win in Assen last month with another podium finish in Mugello yesterday.

Spies finished in fourth position after executing a brilliant last corner move on home favourite Marco Simoncelli.

But the Texan said he could have fought for a second successive podium had it not been for two crucial early mistakes.

The factory Yamaha rider, who closed down a two-second deficit on San Carlo Gresini Honda rider Simoncelli, said: “We had the speed to battle for the podium but I wasn’t there in the first eight laps and I just couldn’t hang on. I’m happy enough coming off a win and we backed it up with a good solid ride.

“It wasn’t a perfect weekend and the two mistakes is what cost me. Without them I believe we would’ve had a shot at the podium. But I did make the mistakes and didn’t ride great, but that’s just how it goes. I did the best I could and it wasn’t good enough for the first three. We came through and ran Marco down and passed him and he hung on and that was the race from there on out.”

Spies said pushing the front-end in the early stages caused his mistakes, and he added: “I just ran wide in a couple corners. I was struggling a little bit with the front, not losing the front, but just pushing the front in a couple of areas. I was just that three or four-tenths off my rhythm in the first eight laps and I made two mistakes that kept me from staying in the slipstream. Once it happened I just had to try to pull back Marco. We did that and then with six laps or seven laps to go, we moved past him. I saw that I couldn’t shake him, so I let him back by and I spent four laps seeing exactly where he was strong and where he was weak.”

Spies snatched fourth with a daring but superb overtake on the inside of Simoncelli at the final corner and he said: “I sneaked underneath him in the last corner and I slowed down enough where I kept him on my outside, I didn’t let him high-low me and just got a really good drive and used all the race track and got to the line before him.”