Back inside the official press conference, the 34-year-old Texan had already said, "I feel like a kid again. In Hervé's team [Hervé Poncharal's Yamaha Tech 3 squad] it's a lot more relaxed. I don't have Valentino and the pressure any more. Now I can just get on the bike and ride it."
Edwards wasn't criticising anything about the factory Fiat Yamaha team - he stressed that he really enjoyed his three years there - but was just reflecting on the looser feel of the French Tech 3 experience that's completely revived his career.
Edwards' thousands of fans worldwide would love to see him get the
MotoGP race win that has eluded him in 86 starts, but it's ironic that it could come when he is functioning as a satellite team rider rather than a full-blown works guy.
At the next round at Estoril he will get the pneumatic-valve engine currently being used to blitz pole positions by Fiat Yamaha factory rider
Jorge Lorenzo, and that could make the difference.
Not everyone in the paddock was so happy with their day's work. At Marlboro Ducati,
Casey Stoner looked unusually diffident.
"For some reason we can't get our bike to work so well," he admitted after qualifying in seventh place, a full 1.097 seconds off Lorenzo's best. "We're trying to get a setup for a good race time, but we're struggling. It isn't just one area front or rear, but we can't understand exactly why we are missing the speed.
"A win seems a bit out of reach at the moment."
His Honda and Yamaha rivals must capitalise on Ducati's confusion at this race to stock up points before the series returns to the big horsepower tracks at which the red bikes excel. At this moment,
Dani Pedrosa is looking quietly strong as a potential winner on the Repsol Honda.
Saturday am - 'That Thing's So Hard to Ride!': Trackside with Roger Burnett
It's 10 o'clock on Saturday morning and I jump on the back of Roger Burnett's scooter to go trackside and watch MotoGP riders at work. We stand at the
Curva Michelin, the second right-hander after the start at
Jerez, where riders are streaming through in first or second gear, depending on the bike and the setup, after peaking at 170mph down the straight.
