Ben Spies is keeping a realistic attitude despite a career-best MotoGP finish at Silverstone, downplaying the idea that he will be a regular visitor to the podium from now on. The 25-year-old stole the last podium position from fellow American Nicky Hayden at Abbey corner on the final lap last weekend and says he will use the "surprising" result as a building block for the future.
"Just because we were on the podium last week doesn't mean it's going to be like that from now on," said Spies. "We'll just take the positives, learn and keep getting better."
Spies, who turned down the chance to replace the injured Valentino Rossi in the works Yamaha lineup, acknowledged that to achieve top five results requires a faultless weekend for the Tech 3 team, and a degree of misfortune for other riders.
"Now that it's happened, people are going to expect it more often," he said. "I'm more realistic and I know how difficult it was and everything has to be right. We'll do the same as we've done every weekend here, and see where we end up on Saturday."
Spies hopes to take some of the confidence he gained from the British Grand Prix to Assen this weekend but is not necessarily expecting the same result.
"It's going to be hard to duplicate that or fight for the podium again, but we'll just continue learning, try to take everything we can from Silverstone and try to have another strong weekend," he added.