Ben Spies got his first real taste of bar-to-ba✅r action with seven time MotoGP world cham💜pion Valentino Rossi during Sunday's Qatar Grand Prix.

Riding Rossi's former factory Yamaha for the fiꦏrst time, Spies saw his hopes of a podium challenge effectively end when h🍸e dropped from fifth to eighth on the first lap.

That put the 2009 Worl🍸d Superbike champion and 2010 MotoGP Rookie of the Year directly behind Rossi, who was making his Ducati debut.

Once both had passed Hector Barbera, Spies and Rossi were left toꦆ duke it out alone.

Rossi may be at less than full stren❀gth, and yet to gel with the Desmosedici, but he was never going to be a pushover to pass and for ten laps the Italian kept Spies at bay, before the Texan finally mad♕e a move stick.

It was only then that Spies was able to show his real potential, dropping Rossi at the rate of oneཧ🉐-second a lap over the remaining six laps and setting the fourth best lap of the race.

But the earlier time lost mean💝t Spies still finished three-seconds behin𒅌d fifth place Marco Simoncelli.

"I got pushed out a bit in turn one, getting trapped behind Barbera and Rossi the first few laps. They were fighting together which mean🍷t I lost touch with꧅ the guys in front," confirmed Spies.

"Other than that it was a good race, I struggled to get by Valentino for a while, he was riding really well and he's not an easy guy to get𒐪 around!

"Once we were able 🃏to get past we set fast lap times and the bike was feeling good. It was just the first part of the race that didn't pan out, I didn't get a lucky breﷺak on the start.

"It'ಞs the first race of the yཧear, I didn't make top five but we got some points so I'm happy," he insisted.

New team-mate and reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo finished second in a race won by Casey Stone🔯r.

Spies finished fifth at Qatar l🐽ast year for Tech 3, helped by Stoner crashing out of the lead.