Edwards takes Bridgestone advice for hard tyre choice

Colin Edwards is well-respected by his collaborators for taking their advice onboard, despite on occasions falling foul of some unsuccessful choices. The American was playing guinea pig for Bridgestone on Friday at Motegi, running what the Japanese tyre manufacturer believe will be their best compound choice for Sunday’s race.

Edwards used only the hard option for the entire 45-minute session that opened the Polini Grand Prix of Japan, with the result being a fastest lap of 1’49.697 and fifth on the Friday timesheet.

”I'm sure that if I had run the softer compounds I could have gone quicker, but Bridgestone think that the hard front and rear will be what I'll need for the race,” said Monster Yamaha Tech3’s veteran rider, undertaking his first campaign with Bridgestone rubber.

”It feels to me like the left side of the tyre is a little bit too hard and I've got to make sure I get it warmed up. The right side feels really good, but you can't take too much risk in the beginning on the left, but once it comes to temperature it works fine.

”Today was all about gathering information. My thinking even yesterday was to start with the hard tyre because we knew it was going to be cold and the forecasts were showing rain for tomorrow, so I needed to get some information in the dry before the race.”

Edwards used both of his Yamaha M1 bikes during the session, although his crew set up the bike with the same tyres to allow him to further experiment with his race setup.