Pleased Spies looks forward to the race

The Tennessee-born AMA rider, on the eve of his third MotoGP race after standing in for Loris Capirossi at Donington and being entered as a wild card for this year's two American races, was satisfied with the work done today.

"I am now really looking forward to the race because everything has gone well so far this weekend," he said.

"It was a good session this afternoon and we tried various things on both bikes. I went back to the primary bike that we had done most work on and looked at the race set-up until we were happy with that and then put on the qualifiers.

"I just went faster and faster every time I went out, those Bridgestone qualifiers are just unbelievable and it took me a time to find the limit of them, so I am sure I could go quicker with a bit more time using them!

He added: "Fifth place is a good spot and the second row will be a good place to start - if the weather is going to be as bad as they say - so that I can be ahead of any of the drama that might happen."

Suzuki's regular race riders Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen qualified 13th and 15th respectively.