Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider Colin Edwards struggling in the 2011 MotoGP season – MotoGP news
With fast improving bikes and riders eager to win, the podium finishes are getting tough these days. It gets even harder if the rider is participating for a satellite team as the Spanish Grand Prix results came out after a wet and wrecked race.
The Texan Tech3 rider Colin Edwards has not stood on a podium for almost two years now. The last time he finished on a podium was in the 2009 British Grand Prix at Donington Park, where he crossed the finish line just after Andrea Dovizioso.
Despite of having a good and fast Yamaha M1, the opportunity to finish on the podium was doubted for Edwards at the Gran Premio bwin de Espana. Adding to the rare chances for a fine finish, the fuel pump disorder decelerated his Monster Yamaha Tech3
M1 to dead stop, just at the beginning of the last lap of the race when he was 2.5 seconds off the fourth place contender Nicky Hayden of the Ducati Team. His compatriot, Hayden on Ducati GP11 hit his chances to gain the third position on the podium.
Edwards said, “I came down the front straight and I felt the bike dying on its a*s and I went to downshift and there was nothing there. That’s motorcycle racing and sometimes it can be a very unkind business.”
The American rider has a long career with a double title in the World Superbike Championship but still no win in MotoGP class means the time is running short for him.
“Podiums in MotoGP are pretty hard to come by these days and we had one right there in front of us on a plate. Racing is racing but a podium is not going to be easy to come by again this season when the field is this deep,” he said.
The Jerez track offered wet and greasy conditions for the race which made the riders to fall and run into each other. Edwards was down in the tenth place after seven laps, but he hopped to fight for the podium place with after crossing two riders.
The M1 malfunction hindered his chance when he pushed his bike on the front stretch to hit the final lap.
Edwards worked hard to keep a good pace he could manage in those conditions without any fall, but other riders were being victimised by the partial wet-dry tarmac and seen returning to their garages. This was when Edwards felt of overtaking Hayden.
“He was struggling so I thought we might actually get on the podium and when I passed I just wanted to put some clean laps in,” he said.
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