Spies and Edward enjoy productive qualifying

Article from http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2010/Spies+and+Edwards+review+Australia+QP

Ben Spies will launch his bid to clinch the prestigious Rookie of the Year title from the front row of the grid in tomorrow's Australian MotoGP race. In sunny but cool and breezy conditions that saw air temperatures marginally higher than yesterday at 12ºC, the 26 year-old posted a lap of 1’31.386 to secure third position.
Colin Edwards had a productive day too, the 36 year-old in terrific form in the morning practice session to register the second fastest time behind home crowd favourite Casey Stoner. Edwards was able to comfortably lap inside the top ten during qualifying before modifications to improve turning performance enabled him to drastically drop his lap times. His best time of 1’31.415 was less than 0.1s behind Spies and gave him fifth position.
Ben Spies – 3rd:
“I'm really happy to be on the front row again but a little bit surprised. I was really happy with my pace and the lap times earlier in the session but each time I tried to go quicker in the last part I'd have spots of rain on my visor. I'd warm up the tyres and see nothing but as soon as I'd push going into the first corner to start a fast lap, I was getting a lot of rain on my visor. I didn't want to take a big risk when I knew I was already pretty close to the front row. My qualifying time is a pace that I can run in the race, so I'm happy with that. I'm confident because I haven't finished a session thinking I put in a great session. So if we can put everything together and ride really well and the bike is working good, maybe I can fight for the podium. I've got the lap time to make the podium but I just want to make the bike better for the last ten laps of the race. It would be nice to clinch the Rookie of the Year title tomorrow. It would be another box ticked in what has been a really positive season so far.”
Colin Edwards – 5th:
“It was almost my best qualifying result of the season but I'm happy with fifth and being so close to Ben on the front row gives me a lot of confidence for the race. I have felt really good on the bike today and finishing second this morning gave me a lot of confidence. I had a fairly good set-up this morning with the bike but I was just missing a little bit of turning performance. We left the bike for the start of qualifying and I was basically doing the same lap times as this morning. So we made some changes to the front for my last rear tyre and immediately I was able to go half-a-second faster. It just felt easy and I gained so much confidence that I could put the bike where I wanted it to be on the track. I'm happy with my race pace and I'm ready, so hopefully I can get my best result of the year. We'll have to see what the weather throws at us but I'm ready for anything.”