Yamaha’s Ben Spies has commented that if not for a bad start to lap one at Laguna Seca, he could have landed on the podum at his first home Grand Prix.

After getting a good jump from the line, a bad run up the first hill left Spies with a tough workload ahead, first having to work his way around Ducati’s Valentino Rossi for fifth and then close a huge gap to fourth placed rider, Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso.

“I got a really good start but going uphill to the steep part of the track basically we didn’t have enough power. I got stuck behind Valentino, I tried to get around as quick as I could but he’s really good on the brakes so it was pretty tough but I did the best I could,” Spies commented.

“Once we got around him it was quite a big gap to Dovizioso but I just kept my head down and kept going. I’m happy we were able to track him down and get fourth. It was a really good race for us it just got spoilt in the first five hundred feet.”

“I would have liked to have been on the podium as I think we had a package to fight with Dani (Pedrosa), I guess that’s racing and I gave it 100% as always.”

Spies will look to turn his strong form into a podium when the MotoGP series heads to Brno, Czech Republic on August 14.