Zoom Colin Edwards

The final round of the 2009 MotoGP world championship kicked off in cloudy and windy conditions at Valencia this afternoon, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team duo Colin Edwards and James Toseland posting the seventh and 13th best times respectively.

Still firmly in contention for fifth place in the overall points standings going into Sunday's final race, Edwards worked on two different settings in cool temperatures this afternoon and found his second YZR-M1 machine a stronger package at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.

Experimenting with a different geometry setting, Edwards was able to post a best time 1.34.123 as changes gave him improved front-end handling performance from his YZR-M1 machine.

“It felt like hard work out there today. This is a physical track and maybe it's just because I'm getting older but the times didn't come easy at the start. But at the end I felt pretty good”, he explained. “We started with two bikes and the first one I went out on I thought it was really good. The second bike was set-up based on comments I gave my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 and Yamaha in Malaysia and it had different geometry settings. And it really helped the bike turn a lot better. One thing I've been missing a lot this year is the bike turning well. Once I get it leaned over and into the corner, my feeling was the bike was always running straight on for a while. But now when I get into the corner I continue turning instead of going wide. Fifth place in the world championship is still up for grabs on Sunday and while it is a tall order, I'll be giving it my all for Monster Yamaha Tech 3. Those four guys at the front are in a different league and I need (Andrea) Dovizioso to have a bad weekend, but I won't be holding back."

British rider James Toseland is confident of big improvements as he started his final appearance for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad with the 13th quickest time.

Quickly reacquainting himself with the YZR-M1 800cc machine after a successful debut on Yamaha's R1 World Superbike machine in Portimao recently, Toseland overcame a front tyre vibration issue and strong winds to clock a best time of 1.34.865.

“I needed some time to adapt myself back to the bike having done over 200 laps on the R1 in Portimao last week. I felt quite strong in the early part of the session. But when I wanted to start picking up the pace and going for some decent lap times I had a problem with the front tyre. There was a bit of a vibration issue and with the changes I lost time”, he explained. “The wind made it quite tricky as well today. In some faster sections of the track it was blowing me slightly off line. We gained some good information though and with ideas that we have to improve for tomorrow I'm convinced I can make progress up the timesheets. It is my last race for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team and I'm determined to finish with a strong result."

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