Assen MotoGP: Colin Edwards content with third

Colin Edwards reckons he was happy with the third fastest time in Assen today before admitting it will be tough to beat dominant Aussie Casey Stoner.

Fourth in this morning’s opening free practice, Edwards was third quickest this afternoon as he was one of four riders to duck under Nicky Hayden’s 2006 990cc lap record.

The Texan posted a best time of 1:36.931, which was only 0.112secs slower than second placed Valentino Rossi, but a massive 0.844 off Stoner’s stunning pace.

The double World Superbike champion told MCN: “Somebody stuck a rocket up Casey’s ass. It’s like that Enimen song, ‘Guess whose back, back again? I got to say he’s really impressive.

“The race lap record here is a 37.1 and that’s not a qualifier he is on. He is doing a 36 flat and that is making us all look like chumps and I’m under the lap record pace too. So he is nailing it to us right now and hats off to him.”

Edwards said he was happy with his opening day’s performance and added: “I’m pretty pleased with that because if you take Casey out of the equation I’ve got the pace to match anybody. We made a small change to the bike after this morning because here you carry so muchload you have to play with the spring rate to get that.

“How my bike was set-up from Donington it was just a bit too lazy and slow to react around this track. There are some pretty fast changes of direction round here.

“I was getting it to change direction but it was all happening a little bit too slow. My team had some good ideas to try and help the bike steer a bit better but it didn’t feel great.

“There was a bit too much weight on the front. I was pushing but I didn’t want to push any harder because the feel just wasn’t there. We made another little change and I was straight into the low 37s and I was on it.

“We then changed the front setting again and I got a lot more confidence in the front and it felt awesome. I was never outside the top three so it is looking good.

“The grip feels really good and all my tyres seem pretty good so thanks to Michelin for that. You need endurance round this track and nothing too crazy grip wise in the beginning that might drop off.

“We’ve got a good direction but honestly if it is going to rain on Saturday I’d really like to get some rain tomorrow. I need to sort out this year’s bike for the rain.

“We have a year old rain setting that works good but that setting needs to be tweaked for this year’s bike. I could start the race with my old faithful rain setting and it will work, but we can make it better after what we had in Donington.”