Frustration Stateside for Toseland and Edwards

Ninth and fourteenth place finishes were not enough to put a smile on the faces of Tech 3 Yamaha riders James Toseland and Colin Edwards, who experienced difficulties with tyres and some tough rivals throughout the 32-lap race at Laguna Seca.

James Toseland – Ninth

`I´m pretty disappointed with that because I feel have put in a lot of effort and done my best to finish only ninth. I got a fantastic start and was fourth but unfortunately it was a tough race after that and I had to ride more defensive than I wanted to. With the harder compound tyres I knew I´d have to wait to get some temperature into them and that cost me a few places early on. Once I got into my pace in the 23s I was pretty happy because I´d hoped that would be good enough for a top six finish looking at the times from earlier in the weekend. I had a good long battle with de Puniet but our lap times were almost identical and I tried everything I could to close him down. At the end I was just trying to block people from passing me but Spies and Elias got me late on and that is a bit frustrating. On paper ninth doesn't look like a great result, and it doesn´t feel like much of a reward for the effort that I have put in with my team this weekend. But I really couldn´t have done anything else and I feel I got the best out of the package I had today. We´ll hopefully be able to come back much stronger after the summer break and be fighting to be back in the top six again where we belong.´

Colin Edwards – Fourteenth

` I don´t think I need to say that this race was well below what I expected. I´ve had a lot of great support from Yamaha US, the American fans and my family this weekend and they haven´t got the result I wanted to give them. My guys at Tech 3 have worked tirelessly all weekend too but nothing really went for us. To be honest I was struggling from the start with the harder compound front tyre I had. I´d have some moment on the brakes while I was trying pass someone and I´d lose a load of time and a bunch of places. I´d gradually work my way back through only for it to happen again and it was frustrating. I just didn´t have any confidence in the front and everybody knows I am a front-end guy. It has been a difficult week with the crash in Germany too, so I´m looking forward to the summer break and being able to return stronger in Brno. I´m still fighting for fourth in the championship and Tech 3 is still fourth in the team standings, so we have got a lot to fight for in the last seven races.´