Spies second-place ends on the floor after 'taking it easy'

The Factory Yamaha Team saw its hopes of a perfect one-two finish in Sunday's wet Spanish Grand Prix disappear when Ben Spies crashed out of second place with just over two laps remaining.

The mistake was all the more frustrating since Spies had already done the hard work by chasing down and passing Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa for second place.

But despite backing off, Spies was caught out at turn five when he lost the front on the very next lap.

"I don't think of it as a race today, it was more attrition," said Spies. "Once we moved into fourth behind Nicky [Hayden] I knew I could get past so just waited for the right moment.

"Dani was only a few seconds ahead of me and I thought for sure we could get on the podium. I slowly started to catch him, Jorge [Lorenzo] was obviously going to win but we could go one-two.

"I put it all out there and caught Dani. As soon as I passed him I knew that we had second place under control, he wouldn't be able to get back by but I needed to not make any mistakes.

"Every corner after I passed him I slowed down, taking it easy then all of a sudden I was on the floor. Obviously it was my mistake, but looking at the data I was going slower than I had all race. It was one of those things; I think the tyres were the limiting factor today.

"I think it was a great show for the crowd though!"

"[Like Lorenzo] Ben was also clever, waiting and taking his time to get to second," added team director Massimo Meregalli. "Unfortunately in the wet like this a little mistake can compromise a race. I'm sorry for him with just two laps to go he deserved the podium."

After Spies' exit, fellow Texan Colin Edwards was promoted to third - but his Yamaha broke down on the final lap, handing the final podium place to another American, Nicky Hayden (Ducati).