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

EDWARDS AND TOSELAND SECURE SOLID POINTS

The Tech 3 Yamaha team consolidated fourth position in the Team world championship today after Colin Edwards and James Toseland collected a solid points haul in a tough Shanghai MotoGP race.

Edwards, who started from pole position for the third time in his career, had to settle for eighth place after his podium challenge ended when he ran off track at the end of the back straight on lap six. Edwards was holding a comfortable third place at the time and pulling away from reigning world champion Casey Stoner. Edwards lost four places, which he was never able to recover despite a determined ride in the second half of the 22-lap race. James Toseland had a tough Shanghai debut as today’s race was run in much cooler conditions than the first two days. Heavy rain that fell earlier the 125 and 250 races cleared in time for the MotoGP clash, but despite a typically dogged display, the British rider finished 12th.

Colin Edwards - Position: 7 Time: +0'29.780

“I’m not particularly happy with that if I’m being honest. I knew what pace I could run and was just pushing as hard as I could in the beginning to try and get away from the guys behind me. I knew Casey was going to be there but I don’t know what Valentino and Dani had but they were flying. As soon as they passed me they were gone. I was running third and I came into the hairpin after the back straight and braked at the same place but the rear end came up and I did the longest nose wheelie I’ve ever done in my entire life. I kept waiting for it to come back but at the end I had to let the brake off to get the rear wheel on the ground and I ran wide. I only lost three seconds but it was the places I lost that mattered. I rode as hard as I could and I’m tired of saying it, but I could not do anything else. We just missed something in the package today. At the end we needed to refine a couple of things to make it a little bit better but at the end of the day I made a mistake. But if I hadn’t made it I still wasn’t going to be on the podium. It just wasn’t going to happen today. I wanted the temperature to be cooler but maybe not as cool as it was. I was licking my lips in the beginning because I thought some other guys had packages that would have worked better when it was hotter but it didn’t happen. I have to say thanks to my guys for their effort this weekend. We got a pole position but obviously I expected more in the race. We’ll look to put things right in Le Mans when I’ll be giving it my all for Tech 3 and Michelin in their home race.”

James Toseland - Position: 12 Time: +0'43.191

“I don’t want to be finishing 12th but in my first season this type of result is going to happen. I had a few problems with the set-up all weekend, which hasn’t helped with me learning the track. I got a decent start but really found it difficult with the setting I had. We were going to try something this morning but it was wet and we gambled with it for the race. On paper it looked really good but unfortunately it wasn’t quite right. You don’t need too many problems to finish 12th in MotoGP. I had a small problem and it was costing me a lot of time in the important places and that was the difference between a top eight finish and being down in 12th. On the brakes the weight transfer was really fast. As I was on the brakes and turning in the rear was skating and not planted on the way into the corner. I was waiting too long for it to load up again before I could get on the power. The problem with the 800s is they don’t have a great deal of torque so you have got to keep the corner speed up. If you are struggling to get into the corner and carry that corner speed you can’t square anything off so I was finding it difficult on the entry and exit. Because of that I was slow mid-corner and on the exit, but losing that time costs you a second a lap and that is massive against these guys. That is the disadvantage of not knowing the track though. My guys worked really hard to help me learn the track and I’ll try and pay them back with a good result in France next time out. This is a French team and I’ll be desperate to do well for them.”

Herve Poncharal – Tech 3 Yamaha Team Manager

“It was an incredible feeling yesterday to get our first pole position since 2002 and thanks to Colin and Michelin for that. Colin did a great job but we knew it was going to be a difficult race. Colin had a really good start and he led the first lap, and even when Valentino and Dani pulled away we were confident we could get a podium finish. Casey wasn’t catching Colin and at one stage Colin was pulling away. But then he went straight on at the hairpin and he lost a bit of time. It is a great shame because although we were not going for the win, I think a podium was a possibility. We missed it this time but I’m sure there will be other opportunities. We still got some good points from both riders and I am not too disappointed. James had a tough weekend but as always he applied himself 100 per cent and he never stopped trying to improve. He will have learned a lot again and he was aggressive as usual in the first few laps. Overall it was a good weekend. We got a pole position, James and Colin are sixth and seventh in the championship so now we have to keep working and getting more confident. Colin was the first non-factory rider today so there are a lot of positives to be taken from the weekend.”