Factory Yamaha's Ben Spies recognises he is the dark horse in this year's MotoGP championship chase but after finishing the final day's testing at Jerez only seven-tenths off fastest man Casey Stoner, he feels he is in with a much better shot than last season.

The Texan former WSBK Champion admitted that at this time 2011, his team didn't want to go to the first round and required more test time. The situation is now reversed and Spies says, in his typically laid-back style, they are good to go with only small tweaks to make to the YZR-M1.

"The bike is ready. We still need to make improvements but you always need to do that through the year, making baby steps but we will do that. We have tested some things that are good that will come on later in the year, which we are happy about, but that way the bike sits, with the times we did today, is what we will use at Qatar," said Spies, speaking to bikesportnews.com.

"I feel more confident, I know I'm the dark horse for sure but I feel a lot more comfortable and a lot closer to the front. Dani, Casey and Jorge are still the three guys to beat - Casey is THE guy to beat. I can't say we're going to Qatar and set the pace but I feel like we can run up front. Maybe not every weekend… maybe we can.

"Last year we were very aware of fuel consumption and having to tune the bike to finish the race but after what we have done in race simulation, I think we are good. Everyone thought the 1000cc was going to be worse for fuel but there are pros and cons to having the throttle wide open to where you were on the 800. We're not too worried about it.

"We haven't fixed completely the problems with grip and wheelie but we've made it as good as we can and we will keep making improvements. Every time we have been on the bike this year we have been making it better. Last year we were wishing we weren't going to Qatar and had more time to test but now we feel we are ready to go."