British GP: Tech 3 Friday report

Ben Spies Spies and Edwards get to grips with spectacular Silverstone

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team successfully navigated new territory today with Ben Spies and Colin Edwards making a positive start to the first British MotoGP race to be staged at the spectacular Silverstone track in over two decades.

The Texan pairing made significant progress throughout the opening session this afternoon, Spies and Edwards wasting no time in working on fine-tuning their machine settings to suit the challenging 3.667-miles layout as MotoGP returned to Silverstone for the first time since 1986. Spies was once again in impressive form, the 25-year-old taking his time to build up his speed before his challenge picked up seriou s momentum in the closing stages.

A best lap of 2.07.250 saw the reigning World Superbike champion finish fifth quickest before heavy rain started to fall in the final five minutes to bring a premature end to proceedings. Edwards has raced at Silverstone previously in his successful World Superbike career, but any knowledge of the venue counted for little with the circuit impressively transformed by a £5m revamp. Despite finishing outside of the top ten in 12th, Edwards is confident that he can make big strides tomorrow with the experienced American planning overnight changes to make his YZR-M1 more agile through the fast sections of the circuit.

Colin Edwards Ben Spies 5th 2.07.250 - 19-laps

"It is a super fun track with a really cool design. It is really fast in a lot of places an d I really like the fast right and left combination where they are building the new pits and paddock. And coming out of the first corner you are really picking up a lot of speed before that twisty part and it is all about finding the limit, learning how deep you can run it in. It was a decent session though it took me a while to get going. With everybody shooting in the dark in terms of set-up, we were missing a little bit in places with the gearbox setting but overall I'm happy. I think everybody will improve quite a bit tomorrow and I know I can be much faster. I tried a completely different set-up to Mugello and that has helped in a couple of places and towards the end I was getting more comfortable with it. We can improve the bike, particularly with the gearbox, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow now we've got some experience and information on the track."

Colin Edwards 12th 2.08.525 - 21-laps

"The track is absolutely awesome and hats off to Silverstone because they did a fantastic job. The first corner is cool and then you're flat-out going all the way to the twisty section and you really need to be brave at that point. It is so fast and reminds me of Phillip Island where you can really push the bike to the limit of its performance and the whole lap is just fast, flowing and really challenging. It's just a lot of fun and they've done a great job. You're going so fast that it takes time to get your brain in gear so you can work out how to go faster. I know there were some concerns about bumps. There are some out there but definitely no more than any other track. I'm only 12th which isn't fantastic but I know there is a lot more to come. The bike at the moment just feels a bit heavy and not just in the change of direction. It is a bit of an effort just to get the bike back upright from maximum lean angle, but we know we can make it better for tomorrow and get it feeling easier."

-source: tech 3