Ben Spies has unfinished business at the Sachsenring, venue for this weekend's ninth round of the 2011 MotoGP World Championship.
The Texan was characteristically quick to learn the circuit on his first visit last year, but fell on oil dropped by Jorge Lorenzo in qualifying, leaving him 13th in the grid.
Spies recovered to eighth in the restarted race, but the Assen winner - now Lorenzo's Factory Yamaha team-mate - naturally has much higher expectations for this weekend, which is followed by the first of his home American rounds.
“I'm really looking forward to the next two races. I got on pretty well at Sachsenring last year; the end result didn't reflect how good we were. I think if qualifying had not been so incident filled we would have started closer to the front," he said.
"We are in pretty good shape right now with the team, the bike is feeling really good, I'm feeling confident on it and the results are showing it. Of course afterwards we head to my home race in the US and I get to run the red and white colours again!”
“In the last three years Yamaha proved to have a good bike for the Sachsenring track and we have a good set up for both riders now," added team director Massimo Meregalli. "I don't know the circuit myself, it will be my first visit with the team but I am confident that we can perform well after looking at our history there.”
