hr'l Cir.uit
,
Chind
MOTOGP
Rou,rd
a
Moy 14, 2006
WoFld
Championship
Road Racc
ScPiEs
Edwordr
(5)
ond
Hopkinr
(21)
finished
three-four,
giving
Amedcons
second,
third
qnd
founh
the doy.
Camel
Yamaha's Edwards
finished third,
his lirst
podium
since
last year's Red
Bull
U
.S.
GP at Mazda
Raceway
Laguna Seca. The
frort-end
struggles
of Edwards and team-
mate
\Alentino Rossi continued
in China,
with no new
parts
and
only cursory
fixes.
Edwards bolted
from
his third-place starting
spot
on the front
row and led for
nine laps
be{ore dropping
to third, where
he'd linish.
"\Men
I actually
got
out front, I thougk,
'Screw
it, l'm
going as hst as I
possiby
can
and
see what happens." he said.
"lfIcrashin
the
lead. I crash
in the lead.
'i{s
it tumed out
we
got
out
there,
these
guys
[Pedrosa
and
Hayden] come by like a
freight train. Once
ttEy
got
by
it w"s... I
couldn't
respond.
lt
w6
just
set at a
limit.
That's the dir6 wi*r
chatte[
you
8et
into a
Pace
and
)"ou
can't
8o
arry faster.
You try to
go
faster and
you actually
chatter
more and
you go
I
Rossi suffered
a front-tire failure
on
the l6th
of 22 lap6 after fighting
his
way from
l3th on the
grid
to a close
tion.
There was no hole in the
tire because
if
you
have a
hole
;"ou
dont keep the
pressure.
h's a litde
strange for us."
The DNE coupled
with
a l4th-place fin-
ish after a flrst-turn
crash in
lerez,
puts
him
down
in sixth
place,
well behind
Hayden.
"So
fiis
very h€avy for us
for
the
champi-
onship,
because
is aiready 32
poinE,
but
before,
we need to improve
our bike.
We
will have something
new for Le
Mans and
we need
to start very early to
come back
at
100
percent, because our rivals
are very
strong.
Especially
the Repsol team
is very
good, have ver/
good riders, a
good
bike
PEDROSAS
FIBST
lnclefient
weather determined
d|€
gril
for the Chi-
nese
Grand
Prix. Rain
bshed both s€ssions on Satur-
day and briefiy
interrupted Saturday's
lone
qualiryirE
scssion. Sdlrday
momint's free
praclce
was dry but
not aftemoon
qualfin8.
Near,
midway into the ses-
sion a',,ery brief shower sent
t E riiers to d|e
pils
to
wah for dle track to dry
Before lon8, h
did, afld the
final 20 minutes werc
a furr)a of
qualiffrE tires ind
dry set-up
gambles. what it also meant was that
those
who could
prepare
quickt
ror a sinde hot lap
had an advantaSe and
dEt Sunda).'s race, expected to
be
run on a dry
track, would b€ a 6-apshoot.
"\ryle'll
iust
ca.k
them cunains in th€ mominS
and
see
wh6t we've
8ot
-
rain or shine," Repsol
Horda's
Nid
