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: 7Time: +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."