Edwards hails set-up breakthrough

Although the American has qualified and finished in the top seven in the last six races, he has not been as close to the leaders as he would have liked. But changes made in practice today left Edwards feeling much more comfortable in all weather conditions.

"For the dry we went back to my old setting that I pretty much rolled out at the first race in Qatar with and it was like coming home," said Edwards.

"We'd gone off the right path and I've not had any feeling with the front in the last few races. The bike hasn't been turning but the changes we've made with the front forks have transformed the way I feel.

"Now the bike is doing what I want it to because before I couldn't get the front set-up, I couldn't get into the corner and I had too much weight on the front with no feeling and no confidence. Now there's more weight on the rear and I can control weight transfer more without it all pushing to the front."

He was equally thrilled with the new electronics passed down from the Yamaha factory to his Tech 3 team.

"I tried some new electronics today too and they are fantastic," Edwards said, who was sixth quickest in today's session. "It used to be so much effort to manage the bike under acceleration, but now it is incredible.

"I want to say a massive thanks to Yamaha because what they have put on my bike is like gold dust. It's a lot less effort to control the bike when I'm accelerating and it is giving me some crucial tenths."

Edwards' team-mate James Toseland was 14th today but reckoned he had the potential to be much higher.

"It wasn't a bad session even though I'm down the timesheets because we've gathered a lot of information in the wet and dry," he said.

"It was important to do a few laps in the wet and we found we didn't have a great setting. So that was good to discover because it looks like there's a big chance of rain for the rest of the weekend.

"By the time I put the slicks on and made a few changes to my set-up it was a little bit too late to get close to the speed of the others but I'm sure I could have got in the 1m23s."

He also managed to stay upright after briefly losing control on a damp patch.

"I had a big moment too and really hit my right leg hard," said Toseland. "I was out of the seat at Turn 8 and I smacked my foot on the rear brake lever so hard that it was all bent. It was painful but luckily it caught me on the protective part of my boot, otherwise I could have done myself some damage."