After a first day in the pits working on the Yamaha– FTR Colin Edward and Aleix Espargaro have finally tested the Yamaha – FTRearly this morning.
The Spanish rider was the first one to exit with thebike at 11am this morning to do the first test of the bike, he completed 18 laps and gave his first impressions of the bike. Espargaro is very happy with this first outing with the bike, he says the bike has exceeded his expectations at this early stage of its development.
Colin Edwards was able to complete 34 laps of to test the Yamaha – FTR. The American rider is happy to be back on a bike with a Yamaha engine and is very positive in his first impressions of the collaboration between Yamaha and FTR. Edwards and the team know that there is a lot of work to be done before the first race of the season in Qatar but look forward to the winter testing period.
Colin Edwards
“I am happy to be back on a Yamaha, it feels good,the bike is good. We are still building the bike with FTR, we have some initial comments from today: seating position, handlebar position these are some of the things that when you are building a bike you have to work on but feeling pretty good about it. The geometry of the bikes feels good, maybe a couple of tweaks here and there but I am happy with it. I definitely had issues with the electronics today, it is something that we spent all this year developing and didn’t get to use, you might ask yourself why. Obviously with Yamaha we have to take it one step at a time and they have a program that they want to put in,get some initial feedback into it, they know the bikes works good on that program, so we had to run that. I’m looking forward to getting back on the bike and keep testing.”
AleixEspargaro
“I am happy; I did not expect the bike to be this good right from the start. I just did 17 laps today because we only have one bike and Colin used it in the afternoon, I will continue working tomorrow. The first impression is really good, the bike is working well, FTR did a really good job in just four weeks time so I am really happy. We have a lot to do in terms of the electronics and in other little things but it being the first day today out on the bike. To be the first day, I was able to push a few laps and it means we are doing things well.”
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