The strong results that Ben Spies posted in his initial practice sessions at Sachsenring did not translate into a strong grid position in today’s qualifying session in Germany. To make matters worse, Spies also suffered a crash when he slid on an oil spill (caused by an engine failure from Jorge Lorenzo’s Yamaha) and was forced back on track to complete the session on his second bike.

Colin Edwards also struggled once again to impress and will start tomorrow’s race in 12th position.

Colin Edwards – Position: 12th Time: 1’23.026 Laps: 32
“That was not an easy session at all and I feel like I rode much better than 12th. The amount of effort I’m putting in is not being reflected in the results and that is frustrating. It is not through a lack of trying and I’ve got to thank my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 because they have worked incredibly hard as always on the bike. We’ve tried pretty much everything. We put weight on the front and we took it off, we put weight on the rear and we changed the springs and pre-load and we did everything you could imagine and nothing was a big difference. Tomorrow’s race is going to be tough because this track is so tight that overtaking is not easy. At best I’d say I’m going to be fighting for seventh but I’ll be riding as hard as I can to give myself some confidence ahead of Laguna Seca next weekend. That is a huge weekend for Ben and I and I want to arrive home in a positive frame of mind and ready for a good weekend.”

Ben Spies – Position: 13th Time: 1’23.028 Laps: 35
“It obviously wasn’t a good session when you look where I ended up and everything that could go wrong pretty much went wrong. I really believe we have a good pace but now we’re starting way back and we’ve got to try and get a good start and come through the field. But where we qualified today doesn’t reflect where we should be. I’d only been riding one bike this weekend and that got tore up in the crash. The lap times on my number one bike I definitely had something in the bag for qualifying to go faster than I did. But the best I could do on the spare bike was match the times I managed on the number one bike. The one decent lap I was on at the end that would have put me a row ahead, de Angelis crashed in front of me at the top of the hill and that just upset my lap. Before that though the incident at the first corner was crucial. I’d just finished my stint and was pulling in at the end of the lap to start going for a qualifying time. All of a sudden I was on the ground and I hadn’t really tipped in. I saw de Puniet’s bike fly right past me and. I walked over to his bike and looked at the front tyre and saw it had oil all over it so I knew there was nothing I could do. Luckily I’m fine and will give it my best shot tomorrow.”

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