Mixed fortunes for Tech 3 pair in Malaysia

The Tech 3 Yamaha team had a mixed time at the first test of 2009 as their two riders debuted the new Yamaha M1 and got further acquainted with Bridgestone tyres. Colin Edwards had three good days in the Malaysian heat but it was a tough time for his colleague James Toseland who suffered a spectacular crash on the first morning at Sepang.

Indeed, the first day of the Sepang visit was only the third day of testing for the Yamaha satellite outfit on Bridgestone tyres, the team having elected to miss the post-2008 season practice at Valencia and undertake just two days of November tests at Jerez just before the winter break.

Perhaps the team’s unfamiliarity with the new Japanese rubber contributed to Toseland’s high-speed mishap and his subsequent three days of toil at the wrong end of the timesheets.

The English MotoGP sophomore explained, “Well we were ten laps in and we went onto the harder tyre. Unfortunately I didn’t put enough temperature in the left hand side and it high-sided me. But it was at 200 km/h, I went pretty far and I got badly bruised on my arm and legs. Luckily I didn’t break anything, but I gave my head a bit of a smash. I haven’t been able to concentrate fully at this test, we have still been out there riding but it has been tough.”

“I did the same lap times on all three days after the crash, just trying to understand the new bike, the new chassis and the new engine. There is nothing much I can do until I can get my concentration back and return to full fitness. It is a really physical circuit around here so I just did as many laps as I could.”

More productively for the team, however, Edwards was in fine fettle on the other side of the pit-box, getting through his scheduled workout well ahead of time, enjoying a solid race simulation on the second day and finishing fourth fastest on the final day – just 0.37s off pace-setter Casey Stoner’s best time.

Highly pleased with the development of the M1 over the winter, Edwards enthused, “It felt good. The new bike is fantastic and I’m really happy with it. After three days I haven’t actually had to do too many laps. I did the race simulation on Friday and tested a few things on Saturday morning with suspension.”

“There is no point just doing lap after lap. We didn’t do many laps on the last day but we have done quality laps and I think on all three days we have done good quality laps. It is a different way of testing now that we only have one tyre supplier but I am happy with it.”

Full results from the final day in Sepang can be found here.