Ben Spies concluded his first hour as a Yamaha MotoGP rider with the 15th fastest lap time during Friday practice for the season-ending Valencian Grand Prix.

The 2009 rookie World Superbike champion hovered between eleventh and 15th for much of the hour, which he concluded with a best lap 2.239sec behind fastest man Casey Stoner, but only 0.187sec behind James Toseland, whom he will replace at Tech 3 Yamaha next season.

“The position isn’t great - I don’t even know where we were - but time wise, for staying on the same tyres, I’m happy. We were only about half a second from being up in the mix. That’s quite good,” Spies told the official MotoGP website.

“It’s hard as a racer to just go out and learn. I’m not taking any huge risks and just slowing building up. I’m having fun and I got to follow some people.”

Spies crashed out of race one at Valencia in WSBK earlier this year, before a second place finish in race two.

“The bikes are so different that it’s hard even when you know the track. For me it’s easier showing up on a bike that I’m comfortable with, like a Superbike, and going to a track I’ve never turned a wheel at than coming here and jumping on a bike I’ve never ridden,” he revealed. “I wish we had some more time on track today as I think I could go quite a bit quicker, just by thinking about a few things.”

The American took a best finish of sixth during three MotoGP races for Rizla Suzuki last season.

“I’ll be happy on Sunday night if I leave the track knowing I’ve got a good feeling with the bike for the two day test next week,” he declared. “Right now, if I had a ninth or tenth place finish in the race I’d be super happy. That would be like winning a Superbike race for me. That’s all we can shoot for right now.”

Spies is riding as a wild-card this weekend, on a fifth YZR-M1 run by Yamaha. He will make his Tech 3 debut in testing early next week.

The four regular Yamaha riders finished second (Jorge Lorenzo), fourth (Valentino Rossi), seventh (Colin Edwards) and 13th (James Toseland) in Friday practice.