Ben Spies was delighted to score his first MotoGP victory on the weekend that Yamaha marked 50 years in Grand Prix motorcycle racing. The Texan took the lead early in the first lap and an incident between teammate Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Simoncelli gave him the springboard for a comfortable victory.
Within three laps, Spies was over four seconds clear of the rest of the field and not even Casey Stoner's best efforts could haul him back as he took a well deserved win. The Yamaha rider admitted he was slightly surprised how easy the race turned out to be.
“It was a strange race today as it was one of the most comfortable races we had and it resulted in a win. I saw the Simoncelli crash on the TV screen in the corner of my eye so I knew about it. I had a good feeling in the bike in the first couple of laps and had to push as much as I could to get a gap. When Casey was pushing back I still had a few tenths if I needed to, we could always match the pace.”
“To do it this weekend with the 50th anniversary colours gives a little bit of pressure but it came out good! I was racing as hard as I could, I have to thank my guys; they gave me a great bike today. At least we've won a race now!”
Team Director Massimo Meregalli felt the result was the perfect reward for Spies on a weekend where he was consistently challenging the front runners.
“Ben rode a really fantastic race today, we are very proud and I don't think his first GP win could have been more perfect. He was consistently fast all weekend and we were confident that he would deliver a really strong performance today. It's even more special to have won here whilst celebrating our 50thAnniversary of Grand Prix racing. I have to say his crew worked extremely hard all weekend and made sure he had a bike that he could win on.”
