Ben Spies will be Chris Vermeulen's team-mate in the Rizla Suzuki garage at the British Grand Prix next weekend as a replacement for the injured Loris Capirossi.

The reigning AMA champion will fly to Donington Park to make his long-awaited MotoGP debut before testing begins in earnest at Indianapolis, three weeks before the Laguna Seca MotoGP round.
Spies said: "I was excited that my first GP was to be at Laguna Seca in the States, but I’m now more excited by this! I think this will be a good thing for me to start out at Donington; it is a track I don’t know so I have no pressure. I haven’t done any testing on the bike or with race and qualifying tyres so I am not really expected to do anything much, so I can just go out there and learn how everything works and enjoy the event.
"This will be good for when we get back to the wildcard races in Laguna and Indianapolis because I know those tracks and I’ll have some knowledge of the bike and be able to put my head down and go for it there. This is great for me to get the chance, but it is in an unfortunate way that I am there because of the injury to Loris and I wish him all the best on a full recovery. I hope I can represent everybody really good and just want to go out there and have some fun!"
Capirossi broke his hand in a crash last weekend when Alex De Angelis nerfed him off. He has been to see a specialist in Monaco and says he will be fit for the Dutch TT.