Fast start for Edwards, Toseland looking to improve
Just four days after the British GP, the Tech 3 Yamaha team
was back on track in Holland today, with American Colin Edwards
immediately on the pace at the historic Assen circuit. The
American posted the fourth best time in this morning's opening
free practice session and in dry but windy conditions this
afternoon went one better to end the day third quickest. His
improvement by nearly 0.5s came largely thanks to a small
front-end set-up modification to help his Tech 3 Yamaha YZR-M1
turn quicker in the fast changes of direction at the Assen
circuit.
On a day of impressively fast lap times, Edwards was one
of only four riders to post times under the current lap record
with his best time of 1.36.931 just 0.112s away from second
placed Valentino Rossi. The lap record of 1.37.106 is held
on a 990cc machine from 2006, underlining just how fast the
pace was today.
British rider James Toseland had a difficult start to his
ninth MotoGP race as he ended the day 13th fastest with a
best lap of 1.37.838. Toseland is confident he can move up
the timesheets tomorrow after a late switch to a geometry
setting, similar to that used by Edwards, helped his progress.
Tomorrow's final practice and qualifying sessions are expected
to be run in dry conditions, but rain has been forecast for
Saturday's 26-lap race.
Colin Edwards 3rd 1.36.931 - 52 laps
"I'm pretty pleased with that because if you take Casey
out of the equation I've got the pace to match anybody. We
made a small change to the bike after this morning because
here you carry so much load you have to play with the spring
rate to get the right feeling. How my bike was set-up from
Donington, it was just a bit too lazy and slow to react around
this track. There are some pretty fast changes of direction
round here. I was getting it to change direction but it was
all happening a little bit too slow. My team had some good
ideas to try and help the bike steer a bit better but it didn't
feel great. There was a bit too much weight on the front.
I was pushing but I didn't want to push any harder because
the feel just wasn't there. We made another little change
and I was straight into the low 37s and I was on it. We then
changed the front setting again and I got a lot more confidence
in the front and it felt awesome. I was never outside the
top three so it is looking good. The grip feels really good
and all my tyres seem pretty good so thanks to Michelin for
that. You need endurance round this track and nothing too
crazy grip wise in the beginning that might drop off. We've
got a good direction but honestly if it is going to rain on
Saturday I'd really like to get some rain tomorrow. I need
to sort out this year's bike for the rain. We have a year
old rain setting that works good but that setting needs to
be tweaked for this year's bike. I could start the race with
my old faithful rain setting and it will work, but we can
make it better after what we had at Donington in the wet."
James Toseland 13th 1.37.838 - 45 laps
"It is hard work at the moment to be honest. We wasted
a lot of time and should have gone with the setting we had
at the end much earlier. Basically I've gone closer to what
Colin is running but we didn't do it until too late and it
was quite a frustrating session. I got up to speed quite fast
right at the end when we tried this new setting so it seems
like we have found a good direction but we wasted too much
time getting there. The bike is better on the brakes because
I was losing so much rear grip on the entry of the corners
that I had no corner speed with the other setting. The way
this new setting transfers the weight is much smoother and
doesn't move weight off the rear as quick. With the new setting
I got straight into the 37s and I feel I could have built
on that but we'd been going round in circles for too long.
I just spent too much time in the garage and when I need the
track time to get the bike set-up on a track I've not tested
on, I can't afford to do that. I'm trying to learn the track
on this bike so I need to be out there. Now we've got this
setting I'm confident for tomorrow that we can move forward."
Circuit Length: 4555
Temp: 22
Weather: Sunny
2008 MotoGP Netherlands - Assen 26/06/2008
Free Practice
Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time
1 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'36.087
2 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'36.819
3 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'36.931
4 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 1'37.012
5 Alex De Angelis Honda SMR 1'37.126
6 Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 1'37.137
7 Randy De Puniet Honda FRA 1'37.187
8 John Hopkins Kawasaki USA 1'37.251
9 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'37.280
10 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1'37.282
11 Andrea Dovizioso Honda ITA 1'37.326
12 Sylvain Guintoli Ducati FRA 1'37.357
13 James Toseland Yamaha GBR 1'37.838
14 Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha ESP 1'37.960
15 Loris Capirossi Suzuki ITA 1'38.082
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