Colin Edwards - Photo Credit: MotoGP.com
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 riders Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow both know that they'll need to make tweaks to their YZR-M1 machines to meet their target in qualifying, despite a bright start at Phillip Island.
A stunning performance in FP1 saw Edwards finish fourth in the overall classification at the end of day one but an increase in temperature later in the day saw him struggle slightly in the second session. The American expects to return to the set-up that served him so well this morning as he goes in search of a top six grid position.
“This morning went brilliantly and I came out of the gate really fast and flying. I felt good on the bike but this afternoon I just couldn’t get close to the pace I had this morning. I had really good grip from the front tyre this morning but when the temperature started to come up a little bit the track started to feel a bit greasy. So for this afternoon we switched to the hard compound front tyre to see what the difference was and there is a really fine line between what does and doesn’t work around this track. We made one little change to the bike but the bike became really hard to ride. The track is pretty bumpy and I was having a lot of vibration and I just didn’t feel anywhere near as comfortable in the second session as I did this morning. We need to go back to what we know worked this morning and make a couple of tweaks to see if we can make that set-up better. The main thing is to get the front working better over the bumps.”
Crutchlow ended the day between the two factory Ducatis in 12th place but the Briton was also struggling with a lack of grip. Crutchlow felt much more comfortable with the bike at the end of the day but admits there is plenty of work still to do.
“Today’s result doesn’t look too bad on the timesheets because although I am down in 12th, I am less than half-a-second away from Colin and he is fourth. But it was a very difficult day to be honest because I had a lot of grip issues and the bike was hard to turn as well. And if I run over any rough tarmac or any bumps I nearly crash, so I’ve got to sit down with my guys tonight and come up with a plan to try and make the bike better for tomorrow. We made an improvement to the bike after this morning and that was reflected in the times because I was quite a bit quicker this afternoon, but we’ve still got a long way to go to make feel more comfortable and confident. I think we need to be looking at making some pretty drastic changes to the bike for tomorrow, but I’m confident we’ll find something and I’ll be battling for a place in the top 10 on the grid.”
