Edwards second on French GP grid

From Yamaha Racing

Colin Edwards was in superb form again Saturday as he came close to handing the Tech 3 Yamaha team a home pole position for the French GP in Le Mans.

The American will start Sunday's 28-lap race from second on the grid after he was denied a second successive pole position at the historic Bugatti circuit by current MotoGP World Championship leader Dani Pedrosa.

Edwards had produced another masterful display of riding on Michelin's dominant qualifying tires to lead the field by 0.7 secs. with 20 minutes remaining. Bidding for a fourth career pole and his second of 2008, Edwards increased his advantage with just 11 minutes remaining when he clocked a lap of 1:32.774.

That time smashed his 2007 Le Mans pole position time by close to a second, but trying to respond to Pedrosa's time on his last qualifier, Edwards encountered a problem attempting to pass Marco Melandri and had to settle for second.

"I've got to admit that I thought I'd done enough for pole position today," Edwards said. "I'll even admit that the time I did with my first tire I thought might be good enough. I thought I'm just going to kick back with a coffee but the boys starting knocking down the times and when I did my second lap of 32.7, I thought 'that is going to be close to pole.'

"I was out on my last tire and I was hammering it but still felt pretty comfortable like I had more in reserve. Then I came out of the bottom hairpin and Marco was in front of me, but he was a good 15 bike lengths clear. He stayed way over to the left and I thought 'okay, he'll look back and see me.' But he didn't look back and unfortunately it cost me a bit of time, which is a little frustrating. I almost ran into the back of him and I had to stand the bike up and run over the inside of the kerb."

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi will start Sunday's French Grand Prix at the head of the second row, after qualifying fourth in Le Mans. Following on from a tricky afternoon Friday, Saturday was much better from the start for the 29-year-old Italian and he was second fastest in the morning's free practice session and much happier about his race pace.

With his last qualifying Bridgestone Rossi was confident of making a run for the front row but he could not quite make it and had to settle for fourth with a 1:33.157.

"Today everything seemed to go very well and I was quite confident; I thought that with the last qualifying tire I could do 1'32.9 or even 8 and be on the front row," Rossi said, "but at the end we had a small problem and couldn't manage this. Of course the first row is always better but with the race tires we are in good shape, with a strong rhythm and a great set-up."

His teammate Jorge Lorenzo was unfortunate to crash again in practice in the morning but escaped any further injury to his damaged ankles and was able to qualify in fifth, next to Rossi, with a 1:33.269.

"This is a very difficult time and I have a lot of pain in all of my body, but I want to keep going and I think fifth place is a very good position for me today," Lorenzo said. "Of course I know it's a risk for me, but this sport always has some danger and I don't think about this. Today was hard and my crash this morning didn't help, but I didn't make anything worse and I was able to ride this afternoon and to try hard with my qualifying tires."

A new tactic helped British rider James Toseland claim seventh on the grid as he opted to run four Michelin qualifying tires for the first time. He clocked a best time of 1:33.396, with the extra qualifier helping him gradually build up speed on the soft rubber. Toseland looked on course for his third second row start in five races when Nicky Hayden dropped him out of the top six by just 0.110 secs. in the closing stages.