Ben Spies 'in the dark' during German MotoGP qualifying

Spies was part of a seven-way fight for pole position in the final minutes in Germany, and even held provisional pole as the chequered flag flew only for Casey Stoner to deprive him at the death.

Spies said despite the lack on onboard timing he could feel the Yamaha was working well from the outset. Second represents his best qualifying position since last year's Dutch TT.

"I am happy with today. We have struggled in the rain in the past for a while and also for the last couple of years at this track in the rain I haven't been too quick, but this morning I could tell the bike was working pretty good," Spies said.

"We had a decent time and I could tell the rain was coming more and more so we just waited until the last 10 or 15 minutes when it started drying out a little bit.

"The only problem was my laptimer stopped working so I had no clue what I was doing or anything.

"I was honestly a bit lost in the last 10 minutes of qualifying, my lap timer quit working so I didn't know what times I was doing and what my splits were. I just rode off of what I thought was quick and saw P1 on my board a couple of times.

"In the end I just gave it some stick and hoped I would get on the front row. Luckily I did, but I was pretty surprised. Great work by the guys to deliver a good bike for the conditions."