Lotta strange things went on with Ben on the factory Yamaha team. A broken swingarm at Laguna while in 4th place. A BROKEN SWINGARM on a multi million $$ factory prototype bike? WTF? Then the brake problem at Motegi. Read reports that his brake rotors were at 1000 degrees by the second lap. Motegi is hard on brakes, but a lot of others were going faster and braking harder (including Lorenzo) with no problems through the whole race. Another WTF? Huge motor explosion at Indy, along with another mechanical DNF at Qatar, bad tire at Assen. Injuries, illnesses, and the business about him racing while puking sick at Mugello, finishing in the points, and the Yamaha exec telling him that he wasn't trying hard enough and to not even show up at the next race if he wasn't "100%". I doubt that he would have been a challenger for the front of the championship at best, but there was a lot of funky stuff coming down there.