Edwards satisfied with competitiveness ahead of ’09 season

Monday, 30 March 2009

Colin Edwards ran into problems on the last day of preseason testing but he is confident his team will quickly find a solution and believes they are in good shape for race one in Qatar.

After his hitherto excellent preseason preparations Colin Edwards ended up tenth on the Official Practice timesheet at the end of Sunday’s 45-minute Jerez showdown, having encountered problems at the Spanish circuit on his satellite Yamaha M1.

Nonetheless, after good tests at Sepang and the Losail International circuit already this year the veteran rider believes he can run near the front this season and admitted he was unwilling to take any risks on Sunday afternoon in tricky conditions, as he and the majority of the MotoGP field trailed behind the rampant Casey Stoner by a significant margin.

“I think overall the test was pretty good,” Edwards remarked before he left Jerez. “We actually found a problem on Sunday that was there already, the more we pushed the more chatter we created, but I think we are really starting to understand it. This track is a little bit ‘special’ for us compared to Malaysia and Qatar where everything was working well.”

“We knew the BMW was out of reach because Casey’s time was astronomical, but to me our rhythm was ok,” he continued. “I think with the hard tyre, the race tyre, we are in the top five.”

Summarising his solid ’09 preparations as a whole the experienced Texan said, “I’m happy with the way the winter has gone. Yamaha has done a great job and at every test we have been competitive. I can’t wait for the first race to try and get a good start.”

Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Team Manager Herve Poncharal contributed his appraisal of Edwards’ preseason efforts when he commented, “I think we can be very optimistic of having a good season after Colin’s performance during the winter. He has done another excellent job for the team and Yamaha here. He didn’t come here to win the car, but he wanted to get more of an understanding of the new bike and the Bridgestone tyres ahead of the first race.”

“I would like to thank all the team for their hard work and effort over the winter. I believe we are in a great position to have our best season for a long time, and with our new partner Monster, the future is looking very bright for Tech 3.”