Edwards prepared for final push

Colin Edwards is looking to bounce back from his disappointment in the rain at Sepang with a result at Valencia, as he pursues fifth spot in the World Championship standings.

Malaysia proved to be a frustrating race for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 pair of Colin Edwards and James Toseland, who finished in 13th and 15th respectively.

The duo experienced front-end grip issues with the wet settings on their satellite YZR-M1s, and Edwards was unable to maintain the race pace in cooler conditions than those his team had prepared for.

Having worked throughout the weekend in hot and humid conditions, the rain which delayed the start of the race by 35 minutes laid the foundations for a difficult race, and after climbing to 12th place on lap 13 Edwards eventually finished one place lower.

“The weekend wasn't great to be honest. The bike wasn't fast in the dry for some reason and I just couldn't get going all weekend,” said Edwards. “We tried a different setting on the race morning and it felt better, but it certainly wasn't a miracle spark. But with the rain coming like it did it just made it a guessing game.”

“When it was properly wet I felt like I was upping my pace and closing in on the group for tenth, but then the tyres started heating up and I was sideways all of the time. In the final laps I was losing a lot of time.”

The crash and failure to complete the race of fifth-placed championship rival Andrea Dovizioso means Edwards is now just six points behind him.

“I'm going to Valencia still fighting for fifth in the championship with Dovizioso crashing, but I don't like taking profit from the mistakes of other people,” said Edwards.

Team Manager, Herve Poncharal, also lamented what was a hard weekend.

“It has been a very disappointing weekend and easily the worst for us this season,” he admitted. “We were struggling in the dry so I can't say I was unhappy to see the rain because I thought this would give us a chance of improving our results. Unfortunately our performance was even worse in the rain and we can't be happy. Now we have to understand why we struggled so much this weekend.”

“The only good thing is that we go to Valencia with Colin still fighting for fifth in the championship and the whole team is motivated to finish the season on a positive note.”