Edwards happy to recover to fourth

The Tech 3 Yamaha rider lost three places off the line from sixth on the grid and had to make his way past Chris Vermeulen and Alex de Angelis, before eventually taking fourth from Andrea Dovizioso.

Edwards believes he could have been in with a chance of a challenging Jorge Lorenzo for the final podium place had he not lost so much ground at the start.

"That was a good start to the season after I made a rubbish start to the race," he said. "I was way down and it cost me the chance to fight for the podium.

"By the time I passed Dovizioso for fourth, Jorge was long gone and it was going to take a massive mistake from him for me to get close. I'd like to think I could have kept the pace with Jorge if I'd got a good start, but it's easy to say that after the race."

Edwards' Tech 3 team-mate James Toseland was disappointed with his start to the season after clashing with Toni Elias while battling on the fringes of the top 10.

"It has been a difficult weekend to say the least and I know we have got a long way to catch up," Toseland said. "I felt like I could fight for the top 10 but Toni came up the inside of me at the final corner and touched me. I went off into the gravel and that left me out of the points unfortunately."