Tech 3 Yamaha show fighting spirit in Brno
Tech 3 Yamaha's James Toseland and Colin Edwards raced to
top 15 results in today's Czech Republic GP.
In front of a record crowd of over 146,000 fans at a cool
and cloudy Brno, the 22-lap race proved to be a tough challenge
for Toseland and Edwards, who both gave their maximum effort
in difficult circumstances to claim 13th and 14th places respectively.
Starting from the back row of the grid, Toseland made his
customary good start, gaining two places on the first lap.
The 27-year-old once again showed his never-say-die attitude,
despite some traction issues as he scored points for the ninth
time in 11 races.
Edwards was one place further back as he too encountered
some grip issues in an effort to maintain his pursuit of Toseland,
as the Tech 3 duo fought closely in the opening stages. The
American still remains firmly in the hunt for fourth place
in the world championship, lying 18-points behind fellow Yamaha
rider Jorge Lorenzo with six races remaining.
Tech 3 Yamaha also remains in contention for a top four finish
in the Team World Championship, and is still the leading non-factory
team in the standings heading to the Misano round on August
31.
James Toseland 13th - 75 points
"It was a difficult race and the result is clearly not
where we want to be. I don't want to be fighting at the back
of the top 15, and neither does my team or Yamaha and it is
disappointing. All I can do is go out there with whatever
I have got underneath me and give it my maximum and I did
that. But this team and Yamaha deserve to be higher up and
today wasn't good enough. It would be easy to let my head
drop but I have never been that type of rider and I am not
going to start now. I was reasonably happy with my start but
I had a few moments with the front tyre on the first couple
of laps and I soon realised that I was at my maximum and that
I wasn't going to be able to do much more. It is disappointing
because I have slipped out of the top ten in the standings
and that was one of my big goals before the start of the season.
We have got to keep working hard as a team and hope that Michelin
can quickly turn it around for the rest of the season so we
can try and get back into that top ten and keep the morale
up of the team. Colin had even more problems than me so it
must have been tough for him, but this is the situation we
are in. We will all keep pushing hard and see what we can
do."
Colin Edwards 14th - 102 points
"I could see straightaway behind James that he was having
some issues with the front tyre, which we expected. I still
thought I could put a good pace together but it never happened.
I just didn't have the confidence I needed to push harder
with the tyres and the more I pushed I didn't seem to go much
faster. James was able to leave me pretty easily as my issues
started to get worse but I wanted to stay out there and try
my best for my guys at Tech 3 and Yamaha, who as always have
been working like crazy to help me this weekend. I thank them
for that, but there was nothing else I could do. Towards the
end I just decided to take a few more risks and I went a bit
quicker, but there was no way I was going to catch anybody.
I've had a bad run lately but I'm still in contention for
fourth in the championship, and I'll keep fighting. But we
need big improvements from Michelin. The good start we had
to the season seems like a long way away now, and we have
to work with Michelin to try and solve some of the issues
because I didn't enjoy today at all."
Herve Poncharal - Team Manager
"We thought the disappointment of Laguna Seca would be
forgotten after the summer break and we would have a positive
weekend in Brno. Unfortunately from the very beginning of
the weekend we understood it was going to be another tough
weekend. Clearly we couldn't challenge the tyre opposition.
We have been trying a lot of different settings to try and
cope with that, but it was difficult. The most difficult was
qualifying in the rain conditions and we were far behind.
We knew starting from the last two rows it would be a tough
race but James and Colin still tried as hard as they could
and they stayed on track and scored a few points. But this
is not how we started the championship and today was a really
difficult day. To see the chequered flag with a few points
is a relief but for sure there will be a lot of meetings and
a lot of thinking of what to do for the future because we
keep on losing ground in the championship and this is very
disappointing."
Circuit Length: 5403
Temp: 20
Weather: Dry
2008 MotoGP Czech Republic - Brno 17/08/2008
Race 1 - 22 Laps
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time
1 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 43'28.841
2 Toni Elias Ducati ESP 0'15.004
3 Loris Capirossi Suzuki ITA 0'21.689
4 Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 0'25.859
5 Anthony West Kawasaki AUS 0'29.465
6 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 0'30.608
7 Marco Melandri Ducati ITA 0'36.453
8 Alex De Angelis Honda SMR 0'36.750
9 Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 0'38.822
10 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 0'39.573
11 John Hopkins Kawasaki USA 0'39.610
12 Sylvain Guintoli Ducati FRA 0'40.892
13 James Toseland Yamaha GBR 1'11.490
14 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'21.133
15 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'37.038
Best Lap
Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time
Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'57.199
Rider Standings 17/08/2008
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points
1. Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 237
2. Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 187
3. Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 172
4. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 120
5. Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 110
6. Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 102
7. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 99
8. Nicky Hayden Honda USA 84
9. Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 83
10. Loris Capirossi Suzuki ITA 77
11. James Toseland Yamaha GBR 75
12. Toni Elias Ducati ESP 66
13. Alex De Angelis Honda SMR 49
14. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati FRA 42
15. Marco Melandri Ducati ITA 41
Team Standings 17/08/2008
Pos. Team Points
1. FIAT Yamaha Team 357
2. Repsol Honda Team 256
3. Ducati Marlboro Team 228
4. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 178
5. Tech3 Yamaha 177
6. Honda Gresini 132
7. JIR Scot Team 110
8. Team Alice 108
9. Kawasaki Racing Team 70
10. Honda LCR 40
Manufacturer Standings 17/08/2008
Pos. Manufacturer Points
1. Yamaha 266
2. Ducati 212
3. Honda 210
4. Suzuki 128
5. Kawasaki 63
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