Edwards optimistic of breakthrough

The Yamaha rider has endured a miserable run of races and struggled again in the opening session today, but was much happier after taking fourth place in second practice.

"We started this morning with a set-up we had used before and it wasn't terrible, but when it started to dry out towards the end we couldn't go any faster and ended up several seconds off the pace," said Edwards.

"I knew that wasn't right; despite the recent results I know I'm good in the wet, I always have been, so there had to be an answer.

"This afternoon Michelin came to us with a trick up their sleeve, we tried it and it worked. We were suddenly five seconds faster and things felt good again.

"We've tried so many different things over the last few races and nothing has worked, but this little change seems to have solved it. I was a lot more comfortable going fast today than I have been going slowly lately.

"So finally I want to say thank you to Michelin for coming up with the solution, and to all my guys who've been working very hard.

"The conditions weren't great today and there was a bit of hydroplaning going on, I wanted to push harder this afternoon but to be honest it wasn't worth risking the gravel for a couple of tenths, we'll save it for tomorrow."

Edwards' teammate Valentino Rossi was less happy after ending the day in 10th on combined times.

The Italian fell on his first run this morning but was able to rejoin the session.
 
"This track is very difficult like this and there isn't much grip when there's a lot of water; it's hard to ride," said Rossi.

"This morning I crashed very early on but luckily I was okay, although I have a little bit of swelling in my arm.

"Then we used a tyre which was a little bit too hard for the conditions, to be honest we only did a few laps with everything right today."

Rossi hopes he can learn from Edwards' progress in the second session.

"This afternoon again we didn't have a lot of grip and it was very wet, but I can see that Colin is much faster this afternoon and this has given me a lot of hope for tomorrow," he said.

"I've talked to him and we have some things to try tomorrow.

"Overall I'm positive, we have some things to improve and today wasn't perfect but I think we have good potential."