Qatar challenge for NGM Mobile Forward Racing and Edwards
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01/01/1970
NGM Mobile Forward racing rider Colin Edwards get to the Losail International Circuit with high expectations to narrow the gap with the top CRTs and find the ideal setting for this first qualifying session of the season.
Edwards continues to gain confidence with his FTR – Kawasaki bike during this second day of free practices and ends FP3 in 1´58.863, two seconds faster than during FP2.
The American rider can now look forward to tomorrow’s new qualifying procedure and hope to start off the year with a good result with their FTR- Kawasaki bike.
Colin Edwards - 5
“The first session today we thought we would go ahead and try the hard tire, which is with what I raced here last year and we decided to give it a go but the track wasn’t up to par, dirty and dusty. Didn’t get a lot accomplished, had a couple ideas and started the second session making changes to the suspension and the change we had ready from yesterday on the electronics on the throttle pickup and between those two things we made a huge step. The bike feels comfortable now and that’s the main thing. We got over that hump and feel good and comfortable. Obviously we went on to use the soft, tires this afternoon, not sure if they can do the race but I don’t think we have a choice right now. We are going to test the hard one again tomorrow and we will see. Thanks to my electronics guys and Ohlins, I think together we put together a good package.”
Sergio Verbena – MotoGP Technical Director
“We are finally in Qatar for the first race where last year we had good results as best CRT on the race. This year the competition is higher so we need to work a lot. Yesterday we had a good start with both Colin and Claudio. This morning the track conditions were pretty bad with a lot of sand on the track and we didn’t have any grip and both riders had a lot of trouble to ride the bike in these conditions. This afternoon we found a good solution to get more grip and Colin managed to be two seconds faster during the second session of the day. Unfortunately Claudio had problem with bike one and lost some time and at the end of the practice he found something good for the setting and tomorrow we will try to confirm if it works.”
