Edwards quickest at Phillip Island
Colin Edwards maintained Michelin's strong pre-season testing form with the quickest time for his Tech 3 Yamaha team on the opening day of this week's test at Phillip Island in Australia
The American was evaluating qualifying tyre developments to set a best lap of 1:29.566, which meant he ended the day six tenths of a second faster than MotoGP champion Casey Stoner.
The Ducati Marlboro rider focused on tyre testing for the day, while teammate Marco Melandri experimented with further set-up changes to make him more comfortable on the GP8 bike. And it appeared those efforts had paid off as he set the sixth fastest time.
The Rizla Suzuki team failed to shine during the test, with Loris Capirossi setting the ninth fastest time after what he described as a tough day. Teammate Chris Vermeulen was 10th.
"Today has been quite a tough day, but we have certainly made advances," said Capirossi. "We set out to get a good base setting for the bike and we have improved it over the day, but we still have quite a way to go.
"We have lots of stuff to test on the bike and we started to do that today but we still have a lot of work to do over the next two days.
"My crew worked really hard today and because of them we have made a lot of progress, the bike is improving all the time, but as I have said before this is a difficult track for the Suzuki so we have lots to do."
With Fiat Yamaha pair Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo choosing to skip the test, the way was left for MotoGP rookies Alex de Angelis, Andrea Dovizioso and James Toseland all to set top five times.
With last week's Sepang test having been incident filled, the opening day of action at Phillip Island passed without any big crashes - although the red flag was brought out at one point after a large bird landed on the track.
Today's times:
Pos Rider Team Time Laps 1. Edwards Yamaha Tech3 1:29.566 77 2. Stoner Ducati Marlboro 1:30.178 73 3. De Angelis Honda Gresini 1:30.688 70 4. Dovizioso JiR Team Scot 1:30.701 79 5. Toseland Yamaha Tech3 1:30.864 81 6. Melandri Ducati Marlboro 1:30.869 99 7. Nakano Honda Gresini 1:31.111 91 8. Hayden Repsol Honda 1:31.226 107 9. Capirossi Rizla Suzuki 1:31.274 82 10. Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki 1:31.317 99 11. De Puniet Honda LCR 1:31.436 103 12. Hopkins Kawasaki Racing 1:31.623 88 13. West Kawasaki Racing 1:31.786 72 14. Guintoli Alice Team 1:32.484 68 15. Elias Alice Team 1:32.573 90
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