Spies boosted by eighth-place finish at Estoril despite several major mistakes

The Yamaha rider has struggled for race pace since this year's championship began - though eighth at Estoril was at least an improvement over his 11th places in Qatar and Spain.

"Very mixed emotions today, this is actually the first time in three years that I've finished a race here," said Spies. "As I told the team, I made four or five big mistakes during the race, they cost me time and places."

Spies added that given his results so far in 2012, he had work to do to rebuild his confidence.

"It was a rough race but I'm continuing to build my confidence, I don't enjoy Estoril so I'm happy to have finished," he said.

"I'm happy with the bike and its performance so we'll continue to build my confidence and improve the results."

Team boss Massimo Meregalli agreed that Estoril could be the start of Spies getting his season on course.

"Ben had some difficulties during the race, he made a few mistakes, I think the first one put a lot of pressure on him so he was trying to push harder and was unable to," Meregalli said.

"The most important thing is he got back his feeling and was quite satisfied with the set up which gives us good confidence for the coming races."