Edwards revitalised by Tech 3 move

The American spent three years as Valentino Rossi's number two in the works squad without winning a race, but has shown better form since switching teams for 2008 - qualifying on the front row for the first two rounds of the season.

He said he felt emancipated by his team change and was consequently riding better than before.

"It's fun again - you don't have to worry about any bullshit or any of the political side. I can say what I want to," Edwards said.

"It just feels so good and my team is awesome. It's working, I don't want to change anything."

Edwards explained that the freedom to pursue his own settings at Tech 3 had really made a difference to his performance.

"I can't say anything bad about it, but the thing about being in the factory team was that you had the Japanese standing behind you saying you should try this and try that, do this that way... and that all gets mixed into what you really want to do," he said. "Over here, we're doing what we want to do."

He added that the set-up he had perfected at Tech 3 had so far proved ideal for every circuit he had visited.

"I got more or less the same settings in Malaysia (testing), Qatar and here," Edwards said. "This is normally a very particular track, but it works good everywhere."

After qualifying third in Qatar three weeks ago, Edwards fell back to seventh in the race as the lack of power from Tech 3's older-specification engine saw the American and teammate James Toseland losing places on the straights.

Edwards is eager for Tech 3 to receive the new pneumatic valve engine used by the works Yamaha team, but felt its absence was less of a handicap at Jerez.

"It's obviously better, we know that, so I'm ready for it," he said. "At Qatar the top speed difference was just ridiculous, but here we've got everything working pretty good."

He also paid tribute to Jorge Lorenzo, his replacement at Fiat Yamaha, who has taken pole for both his MotoGP races to date.

"Today was unbelievable," Edwards said. "It was something special to decimate all of us by six tenths. Hats off to him, he's riding well."