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MotoGP Silverstone Friday—Ben Spies feels confident despite crash

Texan looking to rebound from the bad luck that’s hounded him this seasonTOWCESTER, ENGLAND, JUNE 15 – Yamaha’s Ben Spies fell down and got up and went very fast. The Texan crashed on a wet Silverstone Circuit in the morning MotoGP practice session, continuing a string of bad luck that’s plagued his season. Compounding his problem was that he was stranded at some distance from the pits and lost considerable time getting back. But in the afternoon’s mostly dry, windy session, Spies was only 0.034 seconds off the pace set by Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner, and was going faster on another lap before being balked.

“It was obviously an up and down day,� Spies said. “This morning I made a small mistake in a very slippery part of the track and just a small mistake. But for me the bike feeling in the rain was one of the best feelings I’ve had so far. So that was good. We just need to get some more rain time if it’s going to rain.�

Every rider had an opinion Friday on the two sections of track that have been repaved, meaning that the entire Silverstone circuit has now been repaved since MotoGP returned here in 2010. Some thought it was bumpy, others not. Spies said the fast chicanes, Turns 10 through 14, were slick, as was the corner where he’d high-sided in the morning, the Turn 15 right.

“It is slick there off the back straightway, the right-hander, it’s the old pavement again,� he said. “The new pavement seems good in the rain, and dry it seems good. There’s definitely two parts in the rain and in the dry where the grip level’s very, very, very low.�

Explaining his crash Spies said he was returning to the track after making some small changes and “just picked up the throttle and everything was fine. We had perfect grip, we were driving out of the corner when all of a sudden the bike just snapped away and I jumped off as quick as I could.




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