Edwards: “Good start to season after poor start to race”

Monday, 13 April 2009

In Colin Edwards’ first race on Bridgestone tyres he dropped from sixth on the grid to ninth on lap one, before some brilliant overtaking eventually saw him finish fourth.

As the 2009 MotoGP season got underway in the re-scheduled Monday night race at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar, Colin Edwards survived a poor first lap to battle his way through the crowd and finish fourth.

The veteran American rider followed podium finishers Casey Stoner, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo across the line, to make it three Yamahas in the top four.

It was an improvement on Edwards’ seventh placed 2008 Qatar result and was well-earned by the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider as he overtook several opponents to earn 13 points, when even a top ten result could have been in question after a nightmare first lap.

He explained, “That was a good start to the season after I made a rubbish start to the race. I thought I'd got a good start but the next thing I know is everybody flying by me. I was way down and it cost me the chance to fight for the podium really. I’m not saying I could have run with Jorge (Lorenzo) because he was riding really well, but it would have been nice to give myself a shot.”

Acknowledging the preparations that made the race possible, as the asphalt was cleaned by workers during the day on Monday, Edwards continued, “The track conditions were good considering the rain we had on Sunday night and I just concentrated on being smooth and not abusing the tyre too much.”

“It paid off because when I caught (Andrea) Dovizioso I could see he was having some issues. By the time I passed him for fourth, Jorge was long gone and it was going to take a massive mistake from him for me to get close but I kept pushing. I’d like to think I could have kept the pace with Jorge if I’d got a good start, but it’s easy to say that afterwards.”

Summarising his first race on Japanese rubber the 35 year-old went on to say, “The grip from Bridgestone was really good and I’m glad we all stayed and raced. I just want to say thanks to all my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3. It has been a long and difficult weekend but we have all pulled together, stayed strong and focused and come out with a good result, so I’m looking forward to another good race in Japan next time out.”