Tech 3 Yamaha duo looking for improvements
Colin Edwards ended the first day of his home race at Laguna
Seca with the seventh fastest time, while James Toseland was
16th quickest as the Tech 3 Yamaha team experienced a tough
start to the American GP.
Struggling to get the best performance out of his Michelin
tyres, Edwards was also hampered by a neck injury that he
suffered when crashing out of a rain-lashed German GP just
five days ago. Edwards was due to have further medical examinations
with Dr Art Ting tonight to assess the neck injury.
Less than 24 hours after confirming he had signed a new contract
with Tech 3 for the 2009 world championship, Edwards clocked
a best time of 1.23.077 in the closing stages of this afternoon's
session, which was run under blue skies but in cooler than
normal air temperatures of 22 degrees. Conditions though were
significantly better than this morning when heavy cloud and
mist covered the spectacular California circuit.
British rider Toseland had a difficult first day too, which
culminated in him crashing unhurt at the end of the second
session.
Colin Edwards - Position: 7th 1.23.077 - 58 laps
"That certainly didn't go as well as I expected and right
now it looks like it is going to be a tough weekend. Firstly,
something is wrong with my neck. I'm trying to be the tough
guy but I can't even turn my head to look around. There is
something clicking and grinding in there so I am going to
get an X-ray on my neck with Dr Ting just to make sure everything
is okay. The issue is with the down force and in particular
with the weight of my helmet pushing down on my head. It is
like somebody is ramming a red hit poker or a knife in my
neck. It happened in the crash in Germany and it is certainly
not helping me. But I have got a few issues that are making
it tough. I'm having problems with getting heat into the tyres
at the moment, and to do the lap time I did right at the end,
I'm giving myself a pat on the back for that. I did my best
time on my 18th lap on that tyre, so obviously it gets better
the more you use it. But early on with the temperature issue
it is tough to run the pace of where we need to be. I guess
we just got to hope it gets a bit warmer to try and help the
grip."
James Toseland - Position: 16th 1.23.955 - 55 laps
"I'm not happy at all. It has been hard to do the lap
times I expected and we have got some problems with the set-up
and the tyres. I'm really struggling to have a good feeling
and it has been a bit frustrating. I was pushing hard at the
end of the session and crashed at turn three and I was only
going to really improve by a tenth and maybe gain one position,
and 15th is not where I expected to be. The main issue at
the moment is getting heat into the tyres because we have
got mostly harder compound tyres in my allocation. I've got
a couple of softer options but I need to save one for the
race and possibly use one tomorrow afternoon to make sure
it is the direction that we need. I'll sit down tonight with
my guys to see if we can do something with the set-up that
will push us a bit further forward. But today I was going
as fast as I could and not feeling like I had much room for
improvement. We'll try and improve tomorrow as we always do
and remain positive looking ahead to the race."
Circuit Length: 3610
Temp: 22
Weather: Dry
2008 MotoGP United States - Laguna Seca 19/07/2008
Free Practice
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time
1 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'21.826
2 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 1'22.634
3 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'22.769
4 Alex De Angelis Honda SMR 1'22.808
5 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1'22.847
6 Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 1'22.924
7 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'23.077
8 Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 1'23.097
9 Toni Elias Ducati ESP 1'23.114
10 Loris Capirossi Suzuki ITA 1'23.185
11 Ben Spies Suzuki USA 1'23.244
12 Marco Melandri Ducati ITA 1'23.317
13 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 1'23.415
14 Sylvain Guintoli Ducati FRA 1'23.496
15 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'23.707
16 James Toseland Yamaha GBR 1'23.943
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