Ben Spies missed out on a second MotoGP victory of the season by just 0.015sec in Sunday's Valencia finale.
The Factory Yamaha rider spent most of the final 800cc race battling with Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso for second place - then took the lead from the other Repsol Honda of Casey Stoner when the rain drops intensified with three laps top go.
Spies looked set to add to his Assen victory, but world champion Stoner got a better exit out of the final turn and edged ahead at the finish line.
“We were able to follow Dani and Dovi and get past them eventually and then all of sudden Casey appeared in front of us," recalled Spies.
"Followed him for a bit, then he made a mistake and I went by. It was still raining quite bad and without anybody in front of me it was hard to know how grip was on the track.
"The last two laps I just tried to stay consistent. Casey took some risks and caught us. I tried to get a run out of the last corner, but we just lacked a little bit of steam going to the line. That's the way it goes.
"I'm happy to end the season like this after a horrible month and I'm looking forward to testing for next season.
"A huge thank you to Yamaha and my crew who made sure I had a great bike to ride today. This morning we all came out to make some noise and say goodbye to Marco, I'm pretty sure he heard us and I know he would have approved!”
Spies finished his second MotoGP season fifth in the world championship, with four podiums.
source: crash
