Sterilgarda Yamaha's Ben Spies has said he is surprised he didn't finished tenth in the second World Superbike race at Magny-Cours today after a wrong tyre choice saw his race pace slow dramatically.

The American, who is swapping seats with James Toseland in MotoGP next year, changed tyre compounds after winning race one but couldn't keep pace with eventual winner Noriyuki Haga.

“The whole first race had some good parts and bad ones. We made some small mistakes, costing us a tenth here and a tenth there letting the riders come back and not really taking advantage of the lead," said Spies.

"I made a mistake on the last lap and let Nori through, so I had to get on the outside and get back past. Honestly I’m just super disappointed with the second race. We made a rear tyre choice which was neither better nor worse, but the front tyre we had on in the second race was hard to go at a pace with.

"I was consistently half a second off what we were doing in practice. I’m honestly surprised we didn’t finish in tenth with the way the bike felt. Even if we had won today we would still go to Portimao having to win both races so it doesn’t really change too much.”
Click here for results