Edwards expects very strong Le Mans

The American has invariably been a frontrunner at Le Mans, taking podium finishes in 2005 and 2008 and starting from pole in 2007. Last year he followed factory riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo home in a Yamaha one-two-three.

Now he has the same Bridgestone tyres that Rossi used to win that race, Edwards thinks he will be even more competitive at the track - even though he admits he is not a huge fan of the Le Mans Bugatti layout.

"This place is weird," said the Tech 3 rider. "It's not like I look forward to coming here, but every time I get here everything just seems to work.

"Coming here on Bridgestones this year, I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be interesting.

"The Yamaha always works well here and the Bridgestones won last year, so let's see how it works."

Edwards said Tech 3's season was likely to keep improving as the team acclimatised to Bridgestones following Michelin's exit. He conceded that the race set-up in the last round at Jerez had not been ideal, but said the squad had learned from it.

"It works if you keep a lot of load on the front and rear, and that's where I think we messed up a little bit in Jerez," Edwards explained.

"We were trying to play a little bit with the settings and attitude, whereas we really needed to force more load onto the tyres to get it working a little more. But we're learning.

"Qatar had good grip, Japan had good grip, Jerez was the only place where we kind of struggled a bit with rear grip, but we're learning and figuring it out."