Improved Michelin rear

Colin Edwards reckons Michelin’s aggressive winter development programme hasn’t only concentrated on the new impressive 16-inch front tyre.

A batch of new spec rear tyres were tested at the Sepang test in Malaysia, which helped Edwards clock the best time on race tyres over factory Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi.

The American, who has already decided he will race the new 16-inch front from the start of the season, said: “The last tyre I ran in the January tests that Michelin gave me was like ‘Wow!’ It was frigging 45 degrees and the ground was hot as hell, and to me it felt like a qualifier. You never say that about a race tyre but whatever they have been doing over the winter they have grasped something. 

“We tested that again recently in Sepang and I did one of my fastest laps on the third of four Michelin tyres I tried and I did it with 22 laps on the front, so that tells you good the front is.”