Factory Yamaha's Ben Spies wanted to stop racing after the ninth lap of today's MotoGP outing at Brno because the pinched nerve in his neck is contining to cause numbness in his left arm and the American did so much compensating with the right, that is now causing him problems.

Spies managed to fend off Valentino Rossi for fifth place and looked like he was going to take fourth from team-mate Jorge Lorenzo as the laps counted down but he says it was the hardest race of his career to date - which some statement after spending all those years racing Mat Mladin...

"That was a hard race; I wanted to quit every lap past the ninth! I tried as hard as I could and didn’t make too many mistakes. I just thought with Valentino coming behind me and being ahead in the Championship I’ve just got to keep on going until I fall of this thing," said Spies.

"I didn’t fall off and I finished so it was a good result. Now it’s the complete opposite, it’s my right arm that’s completely dead because that’s all that was working in the race. Again I’ve got to thank the team; the bike was really good and definitely a podium bike.

"I’ve also got to thank the Clinica guys; I’ve never been in there so much, every day! That was the hardest physical race I’ve ever done. We got it finished, put it behind us and we scored some points.”