Factory Yamaha's Ben Spies crashed on his final flying lap of qualifying trying a little too hard to get a front-row start and locked the front wheel of his YZR-M1 going into the fast turn three.

Spies ended up with a bashed hand and fourth on the grid which means he heads the second row at the first of two home races. He is hoping to find some more time with some setup changes before morning warm-up.

“It wasn’t a bad qualifying session, we tried a couple of things and the race set up is not so bad. We got in qualifying mode and got some pretty good laps in. I made a mistake and locked the front up on the brakes going in to turn three trying super hard to get on the front row," said Spies.

"The Yamaha boss said to me that he wanted me on the front row so I was doing everything I could. Joking aside I was trying everything and just made a small mistake. I banged my hand up quite a bit but it will be fine and ready for the race. I think we’ll find a couple of things with the bike in warm-up and hopefully it’ll be a good day.”