Crutchlow started the race from 11th on the grid, but found himself running in the top 5 after Alvaro Bautista’s crash took out Hayden, Rossi, and De Puniet.

Crutchlow then found himself locked in battle with Karel Abraham, the only other rider in contention for the Rookie of the Year title. The battle lasted until the very last lap and it ended when Abraham struck the rear of Crutchlow’s bike and crashed off into the dirt.

Crutchlow will now remain in Valencia for the testing session that begins on Tuesday, where he will get his first taste of the Yamaha 1000cc, and will team up with his new Tech 3 team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, for the first time.

Cal Crutchlow gives his thoughts on the Valencia MotoGP below:

Cal Crutchlow 4th – 70 points:
“That was a pretty dramatic way to finish the season and I am obviously thrilled to win the Rookie of the Year title. But I’m equally happy to have finished in fourth place because that was an incredibly difficult race. I’m not sure what happened at the first corner but I came out of it in sixth place and just pushed as hard as I could. It was a really intense battle with Karel right to the end and both of us were giving it everything we had. The track was so greasy it felt like you could crash so easily and when the rain started getting heavier I just got my head down again and kept pushing. I started to catch Dani really fast and I wasn’t sure if he had a problem or whether I was pushing too hard. I slowed down because of that and Karel caught me back up, so it came down to the last lap and he obviously made a small mistake. He hit me from behind but I managed to stay on and to finish the season with my best ever result is a great way to start planning for 2012. This year has been an incredible learning experience and we have a lot to work on for next season, but I feel confident I can make the step to the next level. I can hold my held up high and now I am looking forward to getting my first experience of the Yamaha 1000cc bike on Tuesday.”

Colin Edwards took a 5th position finish at Phillip Island in an unpredictable race where changeable conditions caused a number of riders to crash out – including Tech 3′s Cal Crutchlow.

Cal Crutchlow looked to be on course for a top ten finish when he suffered an unfortunate crash in the final stages when a quick rain shower fell while he was locked in battle with Hiroshi Aoyama for eighth position. Aoyama also crashed out on the same turn.

The Tech 3 team, including the riders, reflect on an unpredictable Australian MotoGP below:

Colin Edwards 5th 109-points:
“That was all about surviving because the conditions might have looked great on TV with the sun shining but the wind was horrendous. We know the wind plays a big part here normally but today it seemed particularly bad and it was impossible to judge when a gust was going to hit you from one lap to the next. I got into a pretty good rhythm and I was happy to be running a consistent pace in eighth when all the late chaos happened. It is never a good feeling when you see rain spots on the visor with slick tyres on but there was only rain in a small part of the track. I knew it was a flag-to-flag situation but I never thought about pulling in for the rain bike. I was just riding as hard as I could but as safe as I could in the last couple of laps and fifth is a great result. I just want to say congratulations to Casey because he has been awesome all year and he’s a worthy World Champion. As a fellow rider you have to admire what he’s done.”

Cal Crutchlow DNF 57-points:
“I’m pretty disappointed because it has been a very difficult weekend, so to get a top 10 would have been a very positive way to sign off. I’d been having a really good battle with Abraham, Aoyama and de Puniet and I was confident I was going to finish at least eighth. But I came into Lukey Heights and couldn’t even see any rain and the next thing I was down. The weird thing is Aoyama went down right in front of me on the same wet patch, so it was like synchronised crashing. I had no idea why I’d crashed and someone in the crowd told me it had rained really quickly and then stopped. It is a pity because that cost me a decent result but I’ll be looking to get back in the fight for the top 10 in Sepang next week. I tested twice at that track in the winter and while it was tough, I’ve gained so much experience since then that there’s no reason why I can’t have a strong weekend.”

Hervé Poncharal – Team Manager:
“I am very happy for Colin because he did a great job in very demanding conditions. Like in Jerez and Silverstone when we had difficult conditions, Colin is always there. The fifth position was well deserved and this result is a great boost for his chances of finishing the top non-factory rider in the World Championship standings. I am a little bit disappointed on the other side of the garage because Cal knew this track and I thought he would have been a lot stronger here. But he found it very difficult to find a fast pace all weekend. I have to give him credit though because he never gave up and it was a dramatic race. His engine stopped on the grid but that didn’t distract him and he had a very good fight with some experienced riders. I think sixth position would have been a possibility but he was caught out by the conditions and that was an easy thing to do. Other people made a mistake but we hope Cal can return stronger in Sepang, which is another track he has ridden on. Finally I’d like to say congratulations to Casey. He is shown this year what a phenomenal talent he is and he deserves to be World Champion. I’d also like to praise Jorge Lorenzo because he has shown that Yamaha is a very competiive package in MotoGP and he has produced some truly incredible performances to push Casey all the way.”

Despite finishing in 9th, Colin Edwards was only 0.7s away from the front row and once again Edwards was comfortably the fastest of the non-factory riders.

Cal Crutchlow had another frustrating qualifying session and finds himself starting tomorrow’s race in 14th position, and behind Valentino Rossi.

Colin Edwards 9th 1.31.237 – 29 laps:
“I’m pretty happy to be have finished on the third row because conditions were pretty tough out there. The track is really bumpy but the issue today was the wind. It was really blowing hard in some places and it is just so unpredictable. One lap you get a big gust hit you from the right, so you prepare for that next time round and you get slammed on the other side. If you could put the bike where you want every lap you could easily go half-a-second faster, but the wind just doesn’t allow you to do that. The bike is working good and the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team is working fantastic as always for me, so I’m ready for a good race tomorrow. We’ve got to run the soft front and rear tyres for the race and my bike works pretty good with those options. I tried the hard tyres yesterday and couldn’t get them to work at all. I’ll have to take care at the start of the race to make sure we don’t abuse the tyre too much at the beginning but I’m looking forward to having some fun and getting a good result.”

Cal Crutchlow – 14th 1.32.023 – 28 laps:
“There is not much to say other than I am very disappointed because I expected to be competing for a place inside the top 10 here and it has been a struggle to find a good set-up with the bike. We spent a long time analysing the data last night because yesterday I didn’t have good front or rear grip and turning was also an issue. We made a lot of changes to the bike today and to be honest we didn’t find any improvement and I’ve got the same issues. The track is really bumpy and I can’t get the bike to absorb them smoothly and we just don’t have the grip we need to go faster. We’ve tried a lot of things to make it better but for some reason nothing seems to be working. I went just as fast with a set of tyres that had 30 laps on them as I did with two brand new tyres, so we need to sit down again tonight and work through the data and see if there is something we can improve for the race.”

Edwards was immediately on the pace in this morning’s opening practice, the experienced 37-year-old quickly finding a comfortable set-up with his YZR-M1 machine to post a best lap of 1.31.480 that placed him in an outstanding fourth place.

Only Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Simoncelli were faster and Edwards started this afternoon’s second session in optimistic mood that he could once again challenge for the top five in gloriously sunny conditions at the 2.764 miles circuit.

But changes to the settings on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team machine for the second session didn’t deliver the expected improvements in performance and he lapped at a best pace of 1.31.805 to finish in ninth. His impressive pace this morning though secured him the fourth best time on the combined leaderboard and he will work closely with his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew tonight to gain more turning performance from his YZR-M1 machine ahead of tomorrow’s final practice and qualifying sessions.

British team-mate Cal Crutchlow made a solid start to the weekend and he finished 12th on combined times with a best lap of 1.31.969. Crutchlow has previous experience of the breath-taking Phillip Island track from his time in World Supersport and World Superbikes, but today was all about acclimatising to the circuit’s fast and sweeping corners on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 800cc MotoGP machine.

The 25-year-old set a time of 1.32.583 this morning and he needed only four laps of the second session to better that pace. He eventually lapped well over half-a-second faster and he completed the day just over 0.4s behind Edwards.

Colin Edwards 4th 1.31.480 – 36 laps:
“This morning went brilliantly and I came out of the gate really fast and flying. I felt good on the bike but this afternoon I just couldn’t get close to the pace I had this morning. I had really good grip from the front tyre this morning but when the temperature started to come up a little bit the track started to feel a bit greasy. So for this afternoon we switched to the hard compound front tyre to see what the difference was and there is a really fine line between what does and doesn’t work around this track. We made one little change to the bike but the bike became really hard to ride. The track is pretty bumpy and I was having a lot of vibration and I just didn’t feel anywhere near as comfortable in the second session as I did this morning. We need to go back to what we know worked this morning and make a couple of tweaks to see if we can make that set-up better. The main thing is to get the front working better over the bumps.”

Cal Crutchlow 12th 1.31.969 – 43 laps:
“Today’s result doesn’t look too bad on the timesheets because although I am down in 12th, I am less than half-a-second away from Colin and he is fourth. But it was a very difficult day to be honest because I had a lot of grip issues and the bike was hard to turn as well. And if I run over any rough tarmac or any bumps I nearly crash, so I’ve got to sit down with my guys tonight and come up with a plan to try and make the bike better for tomorrow. We made an improvement to the bike after this morning and that was reflected in the times because I was quite a bit quicker this afternoon, but we’ve still got a long way to go to make feel more comfortable and confident. I think we need to be looking at making some pretty drastic changes to the bike for tomorrow, but I’m confident we’ll find something and I’ll be battling for a place in the top 10 on the grid.”

Dovi has signed a one year deal that will see him pair up with Cal Crutchlow for the 2012 season.

Dovizioso had also been offered a ride with Lucio Cecchinello’s LCR Honda team, which was said to include factory support from Honda. With Dovi’s decision to reject this offer and join Tech 3 Yamaha instead, this could leave the door open for John Hopkins to join LCR Honda instead.

Hopkins is rumoured to be the leading candidate for the LCR ride, although Alvaro Bautista has also been in discussions.

Andrea Dovizioso said:
“I’m happy to have reached this agreement with Tech 3 for next year and I want to thank Hervé Poncharal for the opportunity he is giving me. I am excited to become part of Hervé’s squad and to be teamed with Cal. I am sure this new challenge will be exciting, motivating and fun. Now that 2012 is sorted I want to focus on finishing the season in the best possible way.”


Herve Poncharal said:
“I am delighted that a rider of Andrea’s stature has decided to commit his future to Tech 3 and Yamaha. He is without doubt one of the fastest riders in the world who has proven on a regular basis that he is capable of challenging for the podium in MotoGP. I am thrilled that he trusts the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team to take his career to the next level and we can look forward to 2012 with high expectations. I am convinced that with Andrea and Cal we have one of the strongest line-ups on the grid in 2012 and both of them will demonstrate the potential of Yamaha’s new 1000cc machine.”

Edwards made a welcome return to the top 10 with a hard fought eighth position, the experienced American being one of the few riders not to be involved in some sort of incident during a dramatic 24-lap race.

Crutchlow certainly had an eventful afternoon and the British rider salvaged a deserved 11th place having twice run off the 2.983 miles circuit while trying to fight his way into the top 10. He also had to ride through the pitlane for jumping the start, but determined to deliver the best result possible in Yamaha’s home race, he mounted a brilliant recovery to finish inside the points for the fourth successive race.

Starting from 14th, Edwards kept his composure as the chaotic action unfolded in front of him to move into seventh position on lap 18 having brilliantly pulled away from Twin Ring Motegi specialist Hiroshi Aoyama.

Edwards dropped back to eighth with factory Yamaha rider Ben Spies mounting an exciting surge back through the pack after he was caught up in a first lap incident with Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.

At the chequered flag the 37-year-old was once again the top non-factory rider to move to 98-points with three races remaining.

Crutchlow was running in ninth place when he ran off track at Turn 3 on lap four after contact with Toni Elias. He dropped back to 15th and then lost a further 17 seconds when he was penalised with a ride through pitlane for a jump start. He returned to the track in last position but never gave up and he salvaged five important World Championship points to strengthen his bid to be crowned 2011 Rookie of the Year.

Colin Edwards 8th – 98 points:
“What a race that was and I’m struggling to remember everything that happened because it seemed like each time I went round a corner somebody else was in the gravel! There was so much chaos it was just about surviving. Right away I knew Cal had jumped the start and then Valentino and Ben were in the gravel. Casey was then off track, so I just got my head down and once the hard rear tyre got heated up and working good, I put in some decent times around the halfway stage. It took me too long to get by Aoyama though and it is tough to sit behind somebody for such a long time without being able to pass. His style is basically to stop in the middle of the corner and fire it out using the power of the Honda, so he’d get a jump of a few metres with the advantage he had in acceleration. Honestly speaking, my pace wasn’t there all weekend, so to get eighth is a positive result and we can move on and try be much faster at Phillip Island, which is a great track.”

Cal Crutchlow 11th – 57 points:
“Where do you start after a race like that? I knew I’d jumped the start because directly in front of me was Simoncelli and I just let the clutch out when I saw him move. After that I just wanted to push to pick up as many places as I could before I needed to come in for the pitlane ride through. I was pushing to pass Elias but he braked really sharply at Turn 3 and I nearly ran into the back of him. That put me in the gravel, so if you take off the time I lost in that incident and the time I lost with the penalty, I’m sure I could have been in the top seven. After all the drama I just wanted to finish and get as many points as I could for Yamaha and for Tech 3 in such an important race. This is the fourth race in succession now that I’ve finished and I’m gaining a lot of experience. I haven’t felt my best physically this weekend and I didn’t know the track either, so to bag a few more points is a positive outcome and now I’m really excited about the last three races. I know Phillip Island, Sepang and Valencia, so hopefully I can have a really strong finish to the season.”

Herve Poncharal – Team Manager:
“That was an eventful race to say the least and I am really glad at the end that Colin and Cal were able to score good points. Colin had a relatively trouble-free race compared to some of the others and it was good for him to be back inside the top 10 after a couple of difficult races. He took full advantage of the luck that came his way and once again the only riders in front of him are on factory machinery, so he can be pleased with his effort in Yamaha’s home race. Cal probably hasn’t had too many races like he experienced today but he deserves a lot of credit for never giving up and finishing. I think he just let the clutch out because he saw Dovizioso and Simoncelli move but he didn’t let that distract him. It was unfortunate that he ran off track in the early laps because as the race developed, he could have easily finished inside the top 10, despite the ride through. Both Colin and Cal showed a lot of fighting spirit today and I am sure the Yamaha fans appreciated their effort and hard work. Now we can look forward to Phillip Island hoping to see both of them inside the top 10.”

Cal Crutchlow fought off a heavy cold to finish just over 0.1s away from claiming a starting position on the third row of the grid for tomorrow’s Japanese MotoGP race at the end of a closely contested qualifying session at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit.

The British rider will start the 15th round of the 2011 World Championship from 12th on the grid after yet another encouraging performance on board the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine.

Crutchlow’s best time of 1.46.818 was almost 0.3s quicker than the 2010 pole position time and his pace was less than 0.4s away from Valentino Rossi in seventh position. Today’s result was reward for Crutchlow’s determination after he was struck by a nasty head cold overnight, which left the 25-year-old with a severe sore throat.

Crutchlow is hoping a good night’s rest will help him return to 100 per cent as he looks to continue his fine recent run of form in tomorrow’s 24-lap race. He is seeking a third successive top 10 finish to strengthen his bid for the coveted Rookie of the Year title.

Today’s qualifying session, which took place in much cooler conditions compared to practice yesterday, didn’t go according to plan for experienced team-mate Colin Edwards.

The 37-year-old had high hopes of a strong performance after claiming a season best fifth place at the Twin Ring Motegi last year. Edwards qualified fifth in 2010 but despite lapping 0.3s faster this afternoon, his best time of 1.47.165 could only secure him 14th on the grid for Yamaha’s all-important home race.

Edwards suffered an early setback when he crashed with only a quarter of the 60-minute session completed. Edwards ran off the track at Turn 3 while pushing hard to improve his pace on his eighth lap. He ran into the gravel at high speed and despite his best efforts he was unable to keep his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team machine upright.

He quickly adjusted to a different front-end geometry setting on his spare YZR-M1 machine to finish just over 0.3s behind Crutchlow.

Cal Crutchlow 12th 1.46.818 – 25 laps:
“I’m a bit disappointed to be back in 12th when you look how close I am to the third row. But I can’t be too upset because I feel well below my physical best today. All last night I was coughing and sneezing and I’ve been drinking about eight litres of water today and I still feel dehydrated. My throat feels like I’ve swallowed gravel but I still managed to go out there and lap faster than last year’s pole time. I can’t really ask for much more than that on a circuit I’ve never even seen before in my life. I might have been a bit further up the grid but on my last soft tyre I nearly high-sided coming out of the first corner. It was a big moment because I struggled to get heat into the tyre out of the pits. I still got in one more lap on that final tyre and managed to set my best time, so now I’m looking forward to the race and hoping I can have another good battle like I did at the Motorland Aragon. That was a lot of fun but also helped me learn a lot, so I’ll be looking to be in a fight for the top 10.”

Colin Edwards 14th 1.47.165 – 22 laps:
“I had high hopes coming to Japan because last year I got my best grid position and my best result of the Championship at the Twin Ring Motegi. But it just hasn’t worked out at all so far this weekend and I’m just not quick enough. I’m faster than I qualified last year but still nine places further back down the grid, so that shows how much the competition has stepped up this season. The early crash didn’t help the session run smoothly and I haven’t made a mistake as bad as that in a long time. I just completely missed my braking marker and that was all because I was pushing too hard to get more out of the bike. Looking at the lap times it is obvious that our bike doesn’t turn or accelerate as good as the rest and that means you have to ride on the ragged edge a lot. The strange part is that the bike feels fine. It is not doing anything crazy but I can’t get it to go round the track any faster. The target will be to fight for the top 10 tomorrow, but a repeat of fifth like last year unfortunately doesn’t look like it’s a realistic aim.”

Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow declared themselves satisfied with progress made on the opening day of practice for the Japanese MotoGP at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit today.

Both were able to post competitive times in cloudy but hot conditions that bodes well for a strong weekend for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team in Yamaha’s all-important home Grand Prix, which is round 15 of the 2011 World Championship campaign.

Edwards ended 10th quickest on the combined timesheets after he’d been an impressive seventh fastest in this morning’s opening 45-minute session with a lap of 1.48.169. Working hard to gain more confidence and feeling on the hard compound rear Bridgestone tyre option, Edwards was only able to marginally improve his pace to a 1.48.076 this afternoon.

He finished less than 0.3s away from Twin Ring Motegi specialist Hiroshi Aoyama in seventh, giving Yamaha’s most experienced rider huge encouragement that he can fight for a place on the second row in tomorrow’s qualifying session.

Crutchlow threw himself into the challenge of learning another new track with typical gusto, the British rider finishing 14th fastest on the leaderboard.

He needed just five laps of this afternoon’s session to better his time of 1.49.385 from the opening practice. He continued to make big improvements as his experience of the track increased and at the second session’s conclusion he had managed to shave off over a second to finish with a best time of 1.48.379.

Quickly adapting to the severe braking points on the 2.983 miles circuit, Crutchlow finished just over 0.3s away from ninth place and he is optimistic he can compete for his first top 10 qualifying position since the Laguna Seca round in late July tomorrow.

Colin Edwards 10th 1.48.076 – 35 laps:
“It was a decent start to the weekend without being anything too special. I was reasonably happy this morning to be seventh fastest and really close to the top six. But this afternoon we ran the hard tyre for the whole session and I didn’t really feel that good. I just can’t get the lap time out of it even though I can’t really pinpoint any specific issues with it. I can’t sit down with my crew and tell them where we’ve got problems, but it made the bike a little bit more nervous. I expected to be higher than 10th after this morning but this is a point and shoot track and there is no getting away from the fact that we are struggling on acceleration. At a track like this where there is a lot of low gear acceleration points it shows up more. Tomorrow we need to test the softer tyre for a little bit longer to make sure we can do race distance on it, but we’ll also be working harder to improve the set-up of the bike on the hard tyre to give us the best chance possible of a strong result for Yamaha on Sunday.”

Cal Crutchlow 14th 1.48.379 – 38 laps:
“I’m happy enough with my pace today because this is a really weird and difficult track with a lot of really hard braking points that makes it very physical. I’ve had a few arm pump issues this year but thankfully the surgery I had a few weeks ago has done the trick because today I had no problems at all. And if there was going to be an issue with my arms it was going to be at this track because of all the hard braking. Unfortunately we’re lacking a bit of engine performance but there is nothing I can do about that. It is a bit of a disadvantage but I managed to find a second this afternoon, so that shows with more experience of the track I am able to make big progress. Track experience is vital because I beat Aoyama in Aragon a couple of weeks ago but today he is seventh fastest. I’m only three tenths from being inside the top 10, so if I can find that time tomorrow and get on the third row of the grid, I’ll be well happy with that.”

Xavier Simeon will join up with Smith in the Tech 3 Moto2 team for 2012.

Bradley Smith:
“I am thrilled to have signed a three-year deal with the Tech 3 Racing Team and I am looking forward to continuing the excellent relationship we’ve developed in 2011. I have a fantastic relationship with Herve, my crew chief Tom Jojic and all my crew, who all have an amazing passion for racing. It is that dedication and desire to succeed that convinced me to join Tech 3 in 2011, so to be staying until the end of 2014 is the perfect scenario for me. There was never any doubt in my mind that Tech 3 would be the best option to develop my career. It has been flattering to have attracted interest from so many top teams in Moto2, but the opportunity to move to MotoGP in 2013 was simply too good for me to turn down. To think I’ll be riding a Yamaha 1000cc MotoGP bike just over a year from now is hard to believe. I’ve worked so hard for many years to earn the chance to be given an opportunity like this, and now it has come I intend to grab it with both hands. Tech 3 gave me the chance to move to MotoGP in 2012 and it was an honour to be even considered at this stage of my career. The decision to stay in Moto2 was one of the hardest of my life but I believe that together, we can be fighting at the front from the start of next season and pushing to challenge for the Championship.”

Herve Poncharal – Team Manager:
“It gives me enormous pleasure to confirm that Tech 3 has signed a three-year agreement with Bradley Smith. Without doubt, we have managed to secure the services of one of the brightest young talents in the world and I am thrilled that Bradley has put his trust in Tech 3 to help him accomplish his dream of racing in MotoGP. We know he had a lot of interest inside the paddock because of the way he has performed this season, so it is a big compliment to Tech 3 that he chose to commit himself to us until the end of 2014 at least. Bradley has made an immediate impact in Moto2 this year and we all know it is a very difficult class. The rules mean that rider talent plays a crucial role in determining the results, and Bradley has shown he has the speed, talent and commitment to match the best. He has shown the true potential of the Mistral 610 machine with some phenomenal performances this season, and we are in no doubt that in 2012 he can be a genuine title contender before he makes the step to MotoGP. One more year in Moto2 will help him gain more valuable experience, so that when he moves to our MotoGP Team in 2013, he will be immediately competitive. I am convinced that with Bradley’s long-term commitment to Tech 3 Racing that we can look forward to a long and successful relationship together. I’m also pleased to have signed Xavier Simeon. He has shown a lot of promise in 2011 and I’m sure next year he can be consistently finishing in the points and I want to thank RTL-Sport in Belgium for their continued support.”

Despite the crashes from Abraham and De Puniet that helped slim the field down a bit, Crutchlow put on a strong performance that culiminated in a 3 way battle with Aoyama and Rossi.

Edwards was all but absent from the race as he struggled around the track to finish in a lonely 13th

After the race, team manager, Herve Poncheral was quizzed on who might be in the frame to replace Colin Edwards for next season and he confirmed that the team were in discussions with Dovizioso and Bautista (who is still unclear about Rizla Suzuki’s plans for next season), as well as some Moto2 riders, including Andrea Iannone. Eugene Laverty is also in the frame.

Cal Crutchlow 9th – 52 points:
“I’m really pleased with how the race went today because I was back inside the top and having a really good and enjoyable fight with two of the best riders on the grid, who have had a lot of success in Grand Prix racing. It is a shame that I lost a couple of places at the first corner because I’m sure with a better start I could have been battling with Bautista and Hayden. I got on the inside on the dirty part of the track and when I braked I locked the front wheel and nearly crashed. What pleases me the most is that I could make up for the lack of speed on the straight in the corners because the Yamaha handles brilliantly and my Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team gave me a really good bike today. But to hold off Valentino and Hiroshi at the end took a massive effort. I think if they’d started the final lap in front of me on the straight it would have been hard for me to slipstream. There are a lot of positives to take from this weekend because I’ve got back in the top 10 on a track I’d never seen before and beaten two guys with a lot more experience than me. I gained a lot of experience today riding with Valentino and that has given me a lot of confidence for the next few races.”

Colin Edwards 13th – 90 points:
“That certainly wasn’t a great way to celebrate my 150th race in MotoGP. We tried to get the bike right all weekend but we were pretty much chasing our tails the whole time. We were trying to improve the rear grip to compensate for the speed we lose on the straight and for the race we altered the weight distribution again. We put a lot of weight on the rear but it never really worked. After about five laps the grip just went down and I wasn’t expecting it to drop off that quickly. Once that happened I couldn’t stay in that group I was in and I just went backwards. If somebody gave me 10 million Euros to do a 1.51 right now, there is no way I could do it. The last two races have been pretty tough, so we’ll get our heads together and try and come up with a solution for Japan and aim to be fighting back in the top 10 where I have been all season.”

Herve Poncharal – Team Manager:
“I am really pleased to see Cal back in the top 10 and riding with the same confidence that he showed in the first part of the season. I think it was the best ride of the year for him. Maybe not in terms of the final position, but the way he rode was fantastic. The start was difficult, but he never gave up and what was really good is that he was riding with Valentino and Hiroshi and he would have learned a lot from those two. Today he could battle with a nine times World Champion and I’m sure that will do a lot for his confidence in the future. He didn’t only race with them but he beat them and that makes it even more satisfying. With a better start it is not unrealistic to imagine he could have been with Bautista and Hayden, but ninth position is still a very positive result. It was a difficult weekend for Colin and definitely not the way any of us wanted to mark his 150th MotoGP race. He took a gamble on the set-up and he also used the soft front tyre and unfortunately this time it didn’t pay off. All he could do was finish and get some points and we hope he can quickly forget this weekend and return to the form we know he is capable of in Japan.”