Edwards cautiously hopeful for the race

The American, who set the third fastest time behind Fiat Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi and Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins, is happy with today's work.

"It's been good," he said. "You know, when we've got the grip our bike is the best bike out there, absolutely. It's phenomenal. We need to work a little bit on the race tyre situation and we hope for a good result tomorrow.

"We changed a little bit on the bike geometry-wise just to get the race tyres to work a little bit better. On the other side it messes up the qualifier. We might have actually made the bike a little slower, so it's something to keep in mind for the future.

"Thanks to the guys. We've been working our tails off so we'll see what happens tomorrow. I mean, I've got a tyre I'm pretty happy with but we'll see.

Edwards, who was involved in a crash at the last race in Turkey, said he is still suffering from a swollen knee, but is confident it will not affect his race.

He was also pleased with the performance of Yamaha's upgraded engine, which he received for qualifying after Rossi had debuted it in Turkey.

"On the first day we could barely break at 300km/h, but with the new engine I was a bit closer to the Ducati," said Edwards. 

"It would have been difficult being 26km/h down on the Ducatis..."