Tech 3 two ready to ride hard in home race

Ben Spies and Colin Edwards will be going for impressive home results at Laguna Seca from the second and third rows of the grid on Sunday, after the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 duo closed the qualifying session on Saturday in fifth and eighth positions respectively.

Spies came within 0.063s of his first MotoGP front row start as he set a best lap of 1’21.679 on his final turn of the session, and the rookie believes he is well in the hunt for a second podium of his debut campaign in Sunday’s race.

“It's a little frustrating to be so close to my first front row but I'm still really happy with fifth position,” he said. “The last stint was good and I was actually on a front row lap for sure at the end. I was a tenth quicker and then Kallio unfortunately crashed at the Corkscrew. I saw a big dust cloud and yellow flags were being waved. I wanted to play it safe and I lost a tenth there for sure and that definitely kept me off the front row.”

“I'm happy being in the middle of row two and besides Casey and Lorenzo, I'm in the battle for the podium and that's where I want to be. I couldn't be happier with that and if I get a good start and stay out of trouble then I have the pace to fight for the podium. For the win, those guys are going way too fast now. You never give up but they are on another level right now from everybody. It's been great to come home and see lots of support and hopefully I can give them something to cheer tomorrow.”

Edwards is in the middle of the third row and remains undecided as to which tyre combination he will go for in the race.

“I've been riding really hard all weekend and giving it my all for the home fans, but I seem to be stuck around seventh and eighth position,” he explained. “I'm not sure what else I can do because I'm putting in my maximum effort and feel good on the bike. The goal is to try and get away with the bunch from Dovizioso down because the top two are way ahead of the rest of us.”

“I need to find some speed in the final section where I lose a bit too much time and now we've got to figure out which rear tyre to use in the race. I was convinced yesterday that I'd run the hard option front and rear. But now I'm considering the soft rear. There's quite a big difference in lap time but I'm wondering how good the soft tyre will be at the end of the race.”