Positive Test For Ben Spies And Colin Edwards In Brno

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

Less than 24 hours after a strong performance in the Czech Republic MotoGP race, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team was back hard at work for a one-day test session at the Brno circuit today.

Perfect conditions this morning allowed Texan Spies to complete 36 of his 42 laps on board a 2011 prototype model of Yamaha’s factory YZR-M1 machine.

Spies was delighted with the potential of the test bike and finished in sixth position on the timesheets having been able to give valuable feedback to engineers.

Spies ended with a best time of 1.57.575 to lap 0.5s quicker than he managed when finishing in an impressive fourth place in yest erday’s 22-lap race.

The 26-year-old though was unable to complete a further assessment of the new bike when rain brought an early end to proceedings shortly after 3pm.

Colin Edwards finished one place higher up in fifth place as he was able to spend 41 laps assessing different front-end geometry settings and a revised front tyre specification from Bridgestone.

Edwards, who equalled his best result of the season in yesterday’s race with seventh, set a best time of 1.57.512 to finish almost a second faster than his quickest race pace.

Colin Edwards 5th 1.57.512 – 41 laps
“We made a change with the set-up for the race yesterday and I didn’t really have a good feeling with the bike, so we reverted back to the setting I was happy with on Saturday just to try and understand why I wasn’t able to run the same pace. I’ve learned not to race the bike with a setting that we hadn’t tested but we thought it would be fine. I tested some different front-end geometry to try and make more progress with the better turning performance we found earlier in the weekend and we’ve got some more ideas for the future. I tried a new Bridgestone front and I was really happy with that so it was a good test. Although I wasn’t happy with the result yesterday, I felt we made a breakthrough with the bike here and I’m really looking forward to challenging for my first top six finish of the season at the next race in Indianapolis.”

Ben Spies 6th 1.57.575 – 42 laps
“It was a good day. I can’t say too much about the new bike and honestly I’m not sure exactly what I rode. I just got on and rode what was given to me and I didn’t set any blistering lap times today but th at was not the objective. Today was all about giving feedback and getting some data on the new bike. The good thing is that I was pretty much on the pace of the bike I’ve been riding since February and that is a big positive because we’ve got plenty of time to work on that bike. We got lots of information so it was a productive day. It was a good weekend with my first front row start and a strong fourth place in the race and after today I’m heading to Indianapolis for another home race full of confidence. I love racing in front of my home fans and hopefully I’ll be able to get my best result of the season at Indy.”