Tech 3 Yamaha rider James Toseland made a welcome return to the top ten this afternoon with a determined ride to ninth place in the American GP. In sunny but cool conditions, the British rider made a fantastic start from the second row and found himself fourth at the first corner. But while cautiously waiting for his Michelin tyres to reach optimum working temperature, he slipped down to eighth at the end of the first lap.
Toseland moved back into sixth by lap six to engage in a long battle with Frenchman Randy de Puniet. He slipped back to seventh on lap 12 but reeled off a consistent pace in the 1.23 bracket to maintain constant pressure on de Puniet. His pace saw him get tantalisingly close to the battle for fourth place, but in the final stages of the 32-lap encounter, he lost two more places and finished ninth.
It was a disappointing race for Colin Edwards in front of his home crowd as he ended down in 14th. Sporting a special one-off livery for his home race, the Texan briefly threatened to break into the top ten, but front-end issues prevented him from running his usual consistent pace.
The Tech 3 team now starts a deserved summer break before the world championship resumes in Brno on August 17.
James Toseland 9th – 72 points “I’m pretty disappointed with that because I feel have put in a lot of effort and done my best to finish only ninth. I got a fantastic start and was fourth but unfortunately it was a tough race after that and I had to ride more defensive than I wanted to. With the harder compound tyres I knew I’d have to wait to get some temperature into them and that cost me a few places early on. Once I got into my pace in the 23s I was pretty happy because I’d hoped that would be good enough for a top six finish looking at the times from earlier in the weekend."
"I had a good long battle with de Puniet but our lap times were almost identical and I tried everything I could to close him down. At the end I was just trying to block people from passing me but Spies and Elias got me late on and that is a bit frustrating. On paper ninth doesn’t look like a great result, and it doesn’t feel like much of a reward for the effort that I have put in with my team this weekend. But I really couldn’t have done anything else and I feel I got the best out of the package I had today. We’ll hopefully be able to come back much stronger after the summer break and be fighting to be back in the top six again where we belong.”
Colin Edwards 14th – 100 points “I don’t think I need to say that this race was well below what I expected. I’ve had a lot of great support from Yamaha US, the American fans and my family this weekend and they haven’t got the result I wanted to give them. My guys at Tech 3 have worked tirelessly all weekend too but nothing really went for us."
"To be honest I was struggling from the start with the harder compound front tyre I had. I’d have some moment on the brakes while I was trying pass someone and I’d lose a load of time and a bunch of places. I’d gradually work my way back through only for it to happen again and it was frustrating. I just didn’t have any confidence in the front and everybody knows I am a front-end guy. It has been a difficult week with the crash in Germany too, so I’m looking forward to the summer break and being able to return stronger in Brno. I’m still fighting for fourth in the championship and Tech 3 is still fourth in the team standings, so we have got a lot to fight for in the last seven races.”
Herve Poncharal – Team Manager “It was a tough weekend for us. We would have liked to go into the summer break with a better result, but having seen what happened in practice James did a really good race. We didn’t expect him to be up there all race long and I’m disappointed for him that he lost two places in the last two laps because he performed to his maximum and as usual he never give up. It was good that he had that kind of race but it was a big disappointment for Colin. His crash in Germany didn’t help and he arrived with some neck problems and then had some problems in practice. And he didn’t have confidence in the race because that was not the Colin out there that we all know."
"The only consolation is that he has another race in America later this year where I’m sure things will be better for him. We are still fourth in the team championship and we have to work hard to keep that position. Hopefully the break will be good for everybody and we will be back strong in Brno. Finally, congratulations to Yamaha and Valentino for his first win in Laguna Seca."
