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

Riding Rossi's former factory Yamaha for the first time, Spies ✤saw his hopes of a podium chal💜lenge effectively end when he dropped from fifth to eighth on the first lap.

That put the 2009 World Superbike champion and 2010 MotoGP Rookie of the Year directly behind Ross💝i, who was making his Ducati debut.

Once both had passed Hector Barbera, Spies an💯d Rossi were le♈ft to duke it out alone.

Rossi may be at less than full strength, 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 made a move stick.

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

But the earlier time lost meant Spies sti♒ll finished three-seconds behind fifth place Marco Simoncelli.

"I got pushed out a bit in turn one, ge💦tting trapped behind Barbera and Rossi the first few laps. They were fighting together which meant 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 andꦐ he's not an easy guy to get around!

"Once we were able to get past we set fast lap times an𒀰d 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 br🗹eak on the start.

"It's the first race oꦯf the year, I didn't make top five but we got some points so I'm hap🥃py," he insisted.

New team-mate and reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo finish🔴ed second in a race won by Casey Stoner.

Spies finished fifth at Qatar las🐬t year for Tech 3, helped by Stoner crashing out of the lead.