Estoril MotoGP: Fuel clamp blunder costs Ben Spies

Ben Spies’ bid to get his 2011 MotoGP season back on track ended in disastrous and embarrassing fashion after a fuel clamp was left on his factory Yamaha YZR-M1 for the start of the Estoril race yesterday.

A clamp used to temporarily block the fuel overflow pipe on grid was accidentally left in place for the race start and severely hindered the Texan in the opening laps before he could discard it himself.

In the early laps the 2009 World Superbike champion was making numerous mistakes on the brakes as the clamp’s close proximity to the front brake lever made it impossible for him to brake effectively.

He eventually crashed out of tenth place on lap 13 and was clearly incensed that such a basic error had cost him so dearly in the 28-lap race.

The 26-year-old said: “At the beginning of the race there was a piece on the bike that we take off before the race and it was just a mistake, it got left on. In the first couple of laps it was in a place on the bike where I was having trouble braking.

“It was lodging in the area of the brake, I was having difficulty with that. It spelt for a disaster of a race but it was just a mistake and it happens, I was upset about it but I’m sure there are people upset more than I am. It was a little bit of safety issue for me which is why I was riding the way I was. 

“It was unfortunate because the team had made the bike a lot better this weekend and I was definitely confident in the race and we had a top five bike.

“A win was out of the question for sure and I don’t think a podium was on the books but I believe we had a bike and I had the potential to be in the fight for the top five

” Looking at the pace of Andrea (Dovizioso) and Valentino (Rossi) I’m 100 per cent sure that I could have been there.”

or more from Spies and a full nine-page round of news from Estoril, see Wednesday’s MCN.