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Yamaha riders have a good first day |
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Posted by Staff
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Wednesday, 30 January 2008 |
Start for Edwards and Toseland in
Australia
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Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards continued his impressive pre-season form
today by setting the fastest time at the start of a three-day test session at
the Phillip Island circuit.
Just six days after an exhausting but
successful test at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, Edwards clocked his best lap
of 1.29.566 on the first of two Michelin qualifying tyres he tried shortly after
1pm. Evaluating new Michelin tyres and the latest electronics upgrades from
Yamaha, the American’s best time on race tyres today was a 1.30.832 set in a
seven-lap run this afternoon as the Texan completed 77 laps in close to perfect
conditions. That was the third fastest time on race tyres with reigning world
champion Casey Stoner quickest in race trim.
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James Toseland also impressed by setting the fifth quickest time on only
his fourth appearance on the Tech 3 Yamaha YZR-M1. His best time of 1.30.864 on
race tyres came on his 46th lap of an 81-lap stint today, with the British rider
immediately on the pace as he returned to familiar territory at Phillip Island.
Toseland’s extensive track knowledge gained in his World Superbike career at
Phillip Island immediately came to the fore as he broke into the 1.32 bracket on
only his fourth lap. He then reeled off a series of consistent laps of 1.31 laps
and finished just 0.03s slower than Edwards.
Today’s action marked the
start of the second of four 2008 pre-season tests for the Tech 3 squad, with
tests in Jerez and Qatar to follow before the first race in Doha on March 9.
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Colin Edwards 1st 1.29.566 – 77 laps
“It was a good day. I
started with the same setting I finished in Malaysia and played around with that
for the day. The bike feels good at this track compared to what I raced with a
few months ago. Yamaha has been working hard and the new parts are definitely a
step in the right direction, particularly with the electronics, which has helped
on corner entry and exit. With a qualifying tyre in Malaysia my time didn’t get
any better. I had a couple of handling issues with the qualifier in Sepang so
once I got a good pace going I chucked a couple of qualifiers in. It is the
first day but you never know what the weather is going to do down here, and it
could be raining tomorrow. We wanted to make sure with the adjustments we were
going to make for the qualifier that it was the right way. In Sepang I had too
much weight on the rear. The rear was taking over and running me wide and we
made a change to get more weight on the front and get it to turn a bit better.
It seemed fine and I’m happy with the lap time.”
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James Toseland 5th 1.30.864 – 81 laps
“The first few laps I was
able to hit the exact same six inches of track and I got up to speed much
quicker than I did in Sepang and Jerez. It was nice to be at the sharp end of
the times and I didn’t realise but track knowledge is even more important with
these bikes to help things come together. When you can hit the same spot lap
after lap without thinking about it then you can really concentrate on the bike
set-up and that makes a big difference to help gradually improve. I’ve got a
slight problem with entry to the fast corners. Just as I tip in I get a bit of
chatter from the front. I’m losing quite a lot of time because of that problem
because they are in such fast parts of the track. I could make up quite a lot of
time if it wasn’t for that. I’ll try a new setting tomorrow morning to try and
help before I do a race simulation. But it’s nice to be doing decent lap times
with a few problems. And I actually passed somebody on the brakes for the first
time ever in MotoGP. I passed Chris Vermeulen going into the first corner turn
which I was pretty proud of.”
from YRC News
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