Tech3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards (Photo: Yamaha Racing) » More Photos

EDWARDS CLOSE TO POLE AT TEAM'S HOME GP

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi will start tomorrow’s French Grand Prix at the head of the second row, after qualifying fourth in Le Mans this afternoon.

Following on from a tricky afternoon yesterday, today was much better from the start for the 29-year-old Italian and he was second fastest in this morning’s free practice session and much happier about his race pace. This afternoon saw more of the same good work from Rossi as he concentrated on refining set-up and finalizing his tire choice with Bridgestone, before using his three qualifying tires in the later stages of the session. With his last tire Rossi was confident of making a run for the front row but he could not quite make it and had to settle for fourth, though he remains confident of being able to play a key part in tomorrow’s 28-lap race.

His teammate Jorge Lorenzo was unfortunate to crash again in practice this morning but escaped any further injury to his damaged ankles and was able to qualify in fifth, next to Rossi. Dani Pedrosa took pole and Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards added to Yamaha’s impressive 2008 front-row tally by qualifying second, which means that the four Yamaha riders have now filled ten out of the 15 front-row grid spots between them this season.

Valentino Rossi 4th 1'33.157

"Today everything seemed to go very well and I was quite confident; I thought that with the last qualifying tire I could do 1’32.9 or even 8 and be on the front row, but at the end we had a small problem and couldn’t manage this. Of course the first row is always better but with the race tires we are in good shape, with a strong rhythm and a great set-up. Tomorrow I will look to make a good start, try to get to the front immediately and then try to stay there with the other fast riders. As I said, our race pace is fine but there are four or five other riders with a similar fast pace so it’s going to be a very interesting race tomorrow! My target is to be on the podium so now we’re hoping for another dry day and then we will do our very best to be there.”

Davide Brivio - Team Manager

“We improved a lot today in comparison to yesterday, now we have a good pace for the race tomorrow and we’re going much better all round. We were able to be quite competitive in the qualifying and fourth place is not so bad, so it seems that Valentino is in good shape now for the race. We will have to wait and see now for tomorrow but it’s been a positive day and now we will just have to make a few final checks tomorrow morning during warm-up to make sure everything is perfect. We’ve been waiting for the rain now since Friday so let’s just hope that it can hold off for one more day!”

It was another nervous day for the team of Lorenzo as they watched their injured rider battling through the pain barrier in Le Mans. Despite his injuries however he was able to qualify fifth, in the middle of the second row, for tomorrow’s French Grand Prix.

The 21-year-old rookie gave his team another scary moment this morning when he crashed out during first practice and was carried off by stretcher. A quick check up at the circuit clinic however revealed that he had luckily done no further damage to his two fractured ankles and he was able to take part in this afternoon’s qualifying session. There were a few more nervous moments for his team when he twice ran off track, but despite his difficulties he was able to use all of his Michelin qualifying tires and fifth on the grid is an excellent result in the circumstances.

Jorge Lorenzo 5th 1'33.269

“This is a very difficult time and I have a lot of pain in all of my body, but I want to keep going and I think fifth place is a very good position for me today. Of course I know it’s a risk for me, but this sport always has some danger and I don’t think about this. Today was hard and my crash this morning didn’t help, but I didn’t make anything worse and I was able to ride this afternoon and to try hard with my qualifying tires. We need to improve the bike more for this track, especially the electronics and the chassis, but I know that we can be better tomorrow and I am sure that my physical condition will be better as well. Neither our bike nor my mental or physical condition is perfect here and my rhythm is not as good as at the other races, but of course I still want to try to be in front and this is why I have made some mistakes today. It’s not the end of the world however, I’ve been in worse situations in the past and I won’t panic. Tomorrow is another day and, although today I was lacking some confidence, I know I will feel better in myself tomorrow and that I will be able to try to take some points.”

Danielle Romagnoli - Team manager

“All things considered, today’s result is not too bad! After two crashes this weekend in Jorge’s condition, the second row is very good and this will hopefully help him to get a good start tomorrow. Jorge was lucky not to escape further injury but he is very determined and he is not losing focus. Unfortunately, with the problem this morning, we lost some time to work on the set-up and we weren’t able to refine the setting as much as we might have done; we still need to improve the stability in the rear under hard braking and also the electronic setting, but we have all the information that we need to do this now so we will hope to be in better shape tomorrow.”

Colin Edwards was in superb form again today as he came close to handing the Tech 3 Yamaha team a home pole position for the French GP in Le Mans. The American will start tomorrow’s 28-lap race from second on the grid after he was denied a second successive pole position at the historic Bugatti circuit by current MotoGP world championship leader Dani Pedrosa. Edwards had produced another masterful display of riding on Michelin’s dominant qualifying tires to lead the field by 0.7s with 20 minutes remaining. Bidding for a fourth career pole and his second of 2008, Edwards increased his advantage with just 11 minutes remaining when he clocked a lap of 1.32.774. That time smashed his 2007 Le Mans pole position time by close to a second, but trying to respond to Pedrosa’s time on his last qualifier, Edwards encountered a problem attempting to pass Marco Melandri and had to settle for second. Edwards though is confident he is capable of mounting a podium challenge tomorrow after posting fast and consistent times on race tires all weekend. He was quickest at the end of the three free practice sessions.

A new tactic helped British rider James Toseland claim seventh on the grid as he opted to run four Michelin qualifying tires for the first time. He clocked a best time of 1.33.396, with the extra qualifier helping him gradually build up speed on the soft rubber. Toseland looked on course for his third second row start in five races when Nicky Hayden dropped him out of the top six by just 0.110s in the closing stages.

Colin Edwards 2nd 1’32.774

“I’ve got to admit that I thought I’d done enough for pole position today. I’ll even admit that the time I did with my first tire I thought might be good enough. I thought I’m just going to kick back with a coffee but the boys starting knocking down the times and when I did my second lap of 32.7, I thought ‘that is going to be close to pole.’ I was out on my last tire and I was hammering it but still felt pretty comfortable like I had more in reserve. Then I came out of the bottom hairpin and Marco was in front of me, but he was a good fifteen bike lengths clear. He stayed way over to the left and I thought ‘okay, he’ll look back and see me.’ But he didn’t look back and unfortunately it cost me a bit of time, which is a little frustrating. I almost ran into the back of him and I had to stand the bike up and run over the inside of the kerb. Maybe if I had just kept the throttle wide open I’d have still got a fast time. It could have been pole position because I’d matched Dani through the first two splits and the strongest section for Yamaha has always been T4.
With our chassis and the way the bike handles the bike works like a dream in the last section, so I was confident that I’d have made up some time in that last part. I was certainly going to give it a go. I’m still happy to be on the front row, but pole would have been nice for the Tech 3 team in their home race. The bike is working awesome and Michelin has done a great job. For Tech 3 and Michelin this is a massively important race, and I’ll be giving it everything tomorrow. On race tires we have been fast and consistent all weekend and I’m feeling good.”

James Toseland 7th 1’33.396

“I did pretty good times in every section but never managed to put them together on the same lap unfortunately. Without that track knowledge and a couple of small mistakes you are on the third row. The speed of these guys and their experience is unbelievable and it is tough to beat them when everything is perfect. Nicky just beat me to the second row and I’d have been really pleased with that because it is vital to be on he first two rows to get away with that leading bunch.

"Being on the third row is quite a big disadvantage so I need a really good start. I ran four qualifiers today because on a track I don’t know it is almost like having to learn the circuit again with the extra grip. It just helps me build up speed gradually instead of having to take your brain out and go for a time. There is so much pressure to get a good grid position you can’t afford to make a mistake and having a fourth is like a banker really. I’ve been improving all weekend, but I just need to start on a Tuesday or a Wednesday and I’d be okay! We have definitely found a direction with the set-up. I’m hoping it will be dry tomorrow morning because we need to try something else but I got into the 34s on race tires this afternoon and I need to shave off about half-a-second really. But we got rear traction massively better than yesterday. At least now I can drive off the corners better because in China I couldn’t drive of the corners very well and that’s why I was getting passed on the exit. Colin has been brilliant all weekend and it’s been great for the Tech 3 team at their home race. Hopefully I can get in amongst the action tomorrow and give my guys a good result.”