Ben Spies' aim for the weekend is simply to get a good night's sleep after his Friday running at the Sachsenring was hampered by a severe cold.
The Yamaha rider has been in the form of his life after backing up his maiden win at Assen with a storming ride to fourth at Mugello, but has arrived in Germany feeling distinctly under the weather and felt unable to ride to his full potential today.
“I didn't get my best shot at the track today”, he explained. “I've got a head cold which has left me a little fuzzy and makes it kind of hard to give it 100% and be on top form. The changing temperature from the morning to the afternoon also meant the track conditions were pretty different to set up for. I'm aiming for lots of sleep tonight and I'll be ready to come back stronger in the morning.”
Despite feeling unwell, the 27 year old still managed to set the seventh fastest time on board the Yamaha YZR-M1, 0.669s down on pacesetter Marco Simoncelli.
Team Director Massimo Meregalli feels they will be able to narrow the gap to the leaders tomorrow with tweaks the set-up, and an improvement in Spies' condition.
“We are not so satisfied on Ben's side today, the set up is not perfect and the different temperatures from this morning to the afternoon didn't give us enough opportunity to work as we wanted. We did improve a little this afternoon and now we will check and understand what we need to make it better for tomorrow.”
The eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland weekend resumes on Saturday morning with FP3 at 9:10am UK time before the all important Qualifying session at 12:55pm.
