Tech 3 make significant progress

Colin Edwards and Ben Spies were unable to begin any meaningful testing until the track had completely dried on Friday afternoon after heavy morning rain badly disrupting the morning session. Once damp patches had cleared though the Texan duo were able to make significant progress, taking full advantage of the valuable track time before further heavy rain brought an early end to proceedings at 5pm local time.

Spies showed more of his true potential when he clocked the fifth quickest time (2’02.266), despite the reigning superbike champion still feeling below his physical best.

Working closely with his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew, Spies focused his efforts on continuing to adapt his riding style to the YZR-M1 machine. The American made advancements with his braking style and managed to slice close to a second off his best lap time set on Thursday, as he completed 31 laps.

Edwards, who was third quickest on Thursday, finished seventh fastest with a best time of 2’02.479. That was just over 0.2s slower than Spies as the 35-year-old evaluated several different chassis and swingarm setting options.

Ben Spies

“I rode as well and as hard as I could considering how I've been feeling. I'm not wanting to make any excuses but I didn't feel really good with the jetlag. It was still a good test because I learned a lot about improving my riding and adapting my style to suit the Yamaha MotoGP bike. It is hard to break some of my old superbike habits at the moment but I made some big improvements in a couple of places on the track where I was really struggling, particularly in the braking.”

“It started to feel more natural today and I got down to some decent times on race tyres. I was a second faster than the first day, so we made some good progress but this is a really difficult track to learn. This track is really long and really wide, but I got to a respectable pace. I've said it a load of times but it's a learning process and every lap I'm learning. My guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 though have been brilliant again. We're all putting in a lot of effort and I'm pleased with the steps I've made.”

Colin Edwards

“This has been a great test and I'm really happy. The big bonus of the test has been the performance of the engine. Putting it simply it seems they have made the engine with more power and more reliability. Accelerating off the corner was a problem last season but with the new engine it is a strong point. I tried a few things with the chassis and at this stage of the year it is all about crossing off pieces that work and those that don't. We found a couple of things that improved the bike and gave me more confidence and a couple of things we need to work on. It's been a great first test and hopefully we can carry this momentum on for the rest of the pre-season and into the serious business of the racing.”

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad will be back on track at Sepang for another two-day test session later this month before winter testing concludes in Qatar in March.

Press release courtesy of Monster Yamaha Tech 3