Ben Spies - Photo Credit: MotoGP.com
Ben Spies has stressed that the Yamaha team were not pushing their 1000cc bike to the limit on the first day of testing at Valencia. The American was the team's sole representative at the Ricardo Tormo circuit as Jorge Lorenzo continued to recover from injury and concentrated on testing two different engine specifications.
Spies finished in third, a full second behind Dani Pedrosa on the 1000cc Honda, but admitted the team were some way from the limit of their new machine.
“We weren't too worried about lap times today, we made a lot of small changes to the bike including geometry changes, electronics, etc to make the bike as comfortable as possible. Tomorrow we'll try a different chassis spec so we can choose which one to go forward in. We confirmed which direction to go with in power delivery today which is good. This is testing so we never got close to the limit with the bike; it's about riding at 90% consistently to test the motorcycle.”
“When we get the full package next year in Sepang we'll go closer to the limit. I can't complain about the engine power though, we don't need any more. It's a shame my team mate Jorge is not here today, I know that whatever you give him he can go fast on it! I'm looking forward to getting his feedback as well when we test together in Sepang.”
