Monster Yamaha Tech3 duo Crutchlow, Edwards doing well at home event – MotoGP news
The Monster Yamaha Tech3 riders’ squad of Cal Crutchlow and Colin Edwards is doing well at their home event in France.
The fourth round of the 2011 MotoGP season, Monster Energy Grand Prix de France is a crucial event for the Monster company.
Edwards was positioned at seventh place and his teammate Cal Crutchlow was standing down in 12th place for the final time sheet of the day. The free practice sessions were complemented by pleasant weather, with a bright sunshine and warm day,
ideal for the riders to put their machines on the legendry, Le Mans track.
Both Tech3 riders availed the opportunity given and further enhanced the race settings they got at the post race test at Estoril after the third Portuguese round earlier in May 2011.
The American veteran rider, Colin Edwards was successful to wave off about a second from his pace in the morning FP session, which was the result of the right package he sorted during the Estoril one day test. The rider is pleased that the bike does not
need many changes to improve the pace, especially for the French venue. The settings are giving good rear end traction which means better acceleration.
Therefore, Edwards can now keep an eye on a top six place finish at the French Grand Prix. Edwards gave his best shot of 1:34.939 seconds by finishing just half a second away from the top three Honda riders, settling in seventh place on the final time sheet.
Edwards said, “I feel like I've got a lot more rear grip and the bike goes in the direction that I point it. That just makes my riding feel really natural. I've been missing that feeling and for most of the year, I've been fighting the bike to get it to
do something. Today it was much easier to do the lap time.”
The only British rider in the premier class has an outstanding ability to learn new tracks and get into the groove for a good session. He was the second quickest M1 rider in the first practice session being at ninth place.
In the following FP session, he quickly mastered the hard braking and instant acceleration characteristics of the historic circuit of Bugatti. He managed to shave off 0.6 seconds from his best time, but a small crash due to front-end problem he was dropped
to 12th place by the end of the day.
Crutchlow said, “I'm pretty happy with how today went apart from the stupid crash at the end, which was just a mistake I made in braking for Turn 6. I just ran in a bit hot on the brakes and tipped off.”
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