Poncharal summarises 2009 season so far

Herve Poncharal has enjoyed some strong results throughout the season so far from his veteran American rider Colin Edwards, but Sunday’s race at the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini brought disaster for the Texan competitor when he crashed out on the first corner after a clash with Alex de Angelis.

Commenting on the incident, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 manager stated, “Before we started the race in Misano it had been a really good season so far for Colin, finishing all the races in the points and he was fifth in the championship. This is our first DNF of the year with Colin, thanks to Mr De Angelis and that won’t be a good memory for us this season. So (Andrea) Dovizioso has passed us and we are sixth in the Riders’ championship. The team is still fourth in the Teams’ standings though, 20 points ahead of Suzuki.”

Summarising the season as a whole thus far, Poncharal went on to say, “It has been good, Colin has shown good results in qualifying and races. The best moment so far was Donington where he almost won the race and finished second behind Dovizioso. I am happy so far because we know that the first four guys, when Casey is here, and three guys at the moment, Valentino (Rossi), Jorge (Lorenzo) and Dani (Pedrosa), are almost untouchable and most of the time we are first behind this group, so this is good.”

“We have to thank Yamaha for this because their support is fantastic and I also have to congratulate Colin, because even though he is not the youngest rider on the grid he is pushing a lot and he is fulfilling his mission every weekend.”

Turning his attention to the other side of the Tech 3 pit-box to James Toseland, who sits 13th in the standings, Poncharal added, “It is not very easy with James this year, because although he is very motivated, pushing and giving the best that he can the results are quite disappointing, especially when you compare them to Colin’s and you have in mind that the Yamaha is the best bike in the championship. We are trying to help him, to understand what he needs and we are not going to give up, because we still have another four races to go and we hope he can show his true potential.”