A 'completely foreign' bike set-up transformed
Colin Edwards' Chinese Grand Prix fortunes and helped hand the Tech 3 Yamaha team its first
MotoGP pole position since 2002.
The Texan had been just tenth fastest by the end of Friday's pair of free practice sessions at Shanghai, but found his traction problems were eradicated by a radical set-up change that put more weight on the rear tyre.
"I've got to say big thanks to my team, Yamaha and Michelin," said Edwards. "I struggled yesterday but today it really came good. My guys and the Japanese got together last night and they came up with a set-up scenario to get the bike working which is completely foreign to what I've been riding.
"I haven't used this set-up in all my time at Yamaha, but based on the problems I was describing they suggested a plan and when I was thinking about it, I was like 'do what?'" he admitted. "We were just looking for more traction because I struggled so badly in that area yesterday. We made a big change to the bike to get some weight on the rear and it worked.
"It was a great team effort and it definitely worked because when I went out this morning I was a second faster instantly. And it felt easy because I had no issues from the front like yesterday and my comfort level went up from 50 per cent to 95 per cent," added the #5.
Edwards, who stated his desire to remain in MotoGP next year on Thursday, powered his M1 to his third premier-class pole with a new circuit record of 1min 58.139secs, which put him a comfortable 0.355secs clear of factory Yamaha star
Valentino Rossi.
The Texan's pole was also the first for the Tech 3 team since the 2002 German Grand Prix, marked Colin's third front row start from the four races so far - and kept Yamaha and Michelin's perfect 2008 pole position record intact.
