Sachsenring MotoGP: Colin Edwards claims fifth front row start

In-form American Colin Edwards is confident he can challenge for a third podium of 2008 after he secured a front row start at the Sachsenring today.

The Tech 3 Yamaha rider posted a best time of 1.21.519 to secure third place on the grid as he looks to continue the best spell of his premier class career.

A top five finish in tomorrow’s 30-lap race will be the sixth in a row, a run of form that he has not achieved so far since he joined MotoGP in 2003.

The Texan said: “We tried something different this morning and I don’t know if I woke up on the wrong side of the bed or whether what we tried was bizarre, even though it wasn’t far from what we had yesterday. But it just didn’t work. I threw a qualifier in early just to make sure I’d got a time in with the skies looking a bit threatening. You’d hate to be on the pace and not try an early qualifier and be back in ninth or something. Being on the front row is great for my team because it is so important here with it being so hard to pass on this track. I’ve never gone well at this track, so if somebody had told me on Thursday I’d be on the front row and ready to fight for the podium, I’m not sure what I would have said.  But it’s a testament to how good everything is working well together. The bike, the tyres and the team just make a great package. I’d still like a bit more feeling on the front and it kind of feels a bit vague but I think a lot of that’s down to the temperature. We have to run a harder front and it works okay but it would work great in hotter conditions. The Michelin qualifiers are awesome because you can just go and push on them.  It might rain tomorrow and we have been trying to sort out a wet setting with the geometry of this year’s bike and we have struggled a bit. We have a wet setting that I used to finish second at Donington last year and I used it at Donington in qualifying last month. Just about every time it rains I pull this setting and use it. So tomorrow I’m not going to mess around and try and make something new work. I’ll just get 20 minutes of good time on that setting if its wet. I expect to be up there tomorrow because the total package is working awesome.”