Edwards takes fighting fourth in Germany as Rossi slides out

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Colin Edwards rode a strong race in sweltering conditions today to take a best-ever Sachsenring finish of fourth, after starting from thirteenth on the grid for the German Grand Prix. Team-mate Valentino Rossi had a disappointing day as he slid out of the race early on when challenging for sixth position, in a race which was led from start to finish by Dani Pedrosa.

In front of 101,083 fans and with temperatures touching 33 degrees, today's thirty-lap race looked like being a test of endurance - both for riders and tyres. Rossi started from sixth but dropped to eighth at the start, taking two laps to pass Alex Barros before finding himself in seventh behind Randy de Puniet on lap three. He soon made his move on the Frenchman and looked to be safely through but a small mistake proved costly and sent him tumbling into the gravel trap.

Edwards meanwhile was making steady progress through the pack as he gained more and more confidence in his M1 and his Michelin tyres. On lap 24 he suddenly found himself within striking distance of Marco Melandri and Casey Stoner, passing them both on the next lap to take fourth. With a podium in his sights he set about trying to close the gap on Nicky Hayden but was not quite able to catch his fellow American, eventually crossing the line just under two tenths adrift. Rossi remains second in the championship but the gap to Stoner grows to 32 points, whilst Edwards consolidates seventh after taking 13 points today.

Colin Edwards Position: 4thTime: +18.299 "The beginning of that race was pretty tough, I almost crashed out a few times and it felt like I almost had too much grip on the rear! As time went on though I started to feel better and better and when Hayden passed me back again it made me pretty determined to keep pushing. Suddenly I looked up and there were three of them in front of me and at that stage I felt like the podium was a possibility. Getting past Stoner and Melandri was fine but I couldn't quite get back to Hayden which was a pity. A podium would have been nice but, after yesterday's qualifying, I'm pretty happy with fourth; it's my best ever finish here by miles. It was an exhausting race and you don't realise till you cross the finish line how much strain thirty laps around here puts on the left side of your body - my shoulder's pretty sore now! I want to say a big thank you to Michelin, my team and Yamaha because they've had to work really hard this weekend to find a way to make things come together and they did a great job. We knew this morning that we'd found a good package and to finish fourth after starting thirteenth is great. We're heading for Laguna on a high!"

Valentino Rossi Position: DNFTime: - "Unfortunately I made a mistake today and I want to say sorry to everyone - my team, Yamaha and of course all my fans. I lost some places at the start and had to wait a lap before I could start to push, but everything was feeling very good. Getting past de Puniet was hard because in the part of the track where it's best to overtake he was very fast. Finally I made my move and I made a great pass but I made a mistake and lost the front. I'm so disappointed because today our package was working very well and we missed the chance to make up a lot of points on Stoner. We know from Pedrosa and Colin's performance that the Michelin tyres worked well until the end and I'm sad that we weren't there to fight. Luckily Stoner was only fifth so the points situation is not as bad as it could have been. I'm very glad we only have seven days until the next race because right now I'm feeling quite bad, but very determined for America!"

Davide Brivio - Team Director "Congratulations to Colin, it's a great result for him and it gives him and his team a lot of encouragement and confidence for his home race in Laguna Seca. Michelin did a good job this weekend and our tyres worked very well until the end. On the other side, it's a great disappointment with Valentino because we lost the chance to recover some points. However this is racing and we know that our package is working very well now and we will get the chance to try again in just one week's time. Today gives us double motivation for Laguna." Disappointing weekend for Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3

In the extreme temperatures that engulfed the German Grand Prix held at the challenging Sachsenring circuit in the picturesque undulating hills in the east of Germany the Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team proved to be a difficult weekend for team riders Sylvain Guintoli and Makoto Tamada. The weekend looked promising after MotoGP rookie Sylvain Guintoli claimed his best qualifying position of the year in ninth fastest position but unfortunately race day didn¹t reflect his progress. Sylvain failed to finish the race after a mishap during the opening lap of the race caused him to crash. His teammate Makoto Tamada also had a weekend to forget as he was never on the pace all weekend struggling to be comfortable to the bike to finish 13th.    Makoto Tamada Position: 13thTime: +2 laps This was a very disappointing weekend for me as I never felt happy with the bike. I tried everything but I wasn¹t comfortable and I could never find a good rhythm. During the race nothing changed and I decided to pit to change a tyre to see if that would improve my confidence and make me push hard but still I didn¹t feel good in my riding. I have to think very hard about this weekend and hopefully use it to improve my feeling for next weekend in America.    Sylvain Guintoli Position: DNFTime: - To say I¹m extremely disappointed is an understatement as I felt that I could¹ve done something very good this weekend after such a good qualifying. I got off the line well and pushed very hard dicing with Colin Edwards, which was very good for my confidence. At the end of the fourth lap when I was coming into the last corner I noticed that the engine revs dropped to be very low. This caused me to run wide onto the dirty part of the track and I lost the rear, which caused me to highside. All I can do now is put this behind me and hope to continue with some good progress next weekend at Laguna.

Hervé Poncharal - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team Manager This weekend is a very big disappointment as we were hoping for quite a high result because last year here we had our best result when we finished just 17 seconds behind the winner. Also Sylvain scored his best qualifying result on Saturday when he was ninth fastest so to come away with these results is very hard to accept. We knew Sylvain was going to push hard as he was determined to make up for his bad starts he has had lately but it was not to be. Sachsenring is a very tight track and if you get offline here it can bite hard and unfortunately that is what happened to Sylvain. As for Makoto I don¹t know what happened as he was off the pace all weekend so it is very puzzling for everyone in the team as they put in so much work to give him the best package possible.   Circuit Length: 3671 Temp: 33 Weather: Dry     2007 MotoGP Germany - Sachsenring 15/07/2007 Race 1 Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Total Time 1 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 41'53.196 2 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 0'13.166 3 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 0'16.771 4 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 0'18.299 5 Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 0'31.426 6 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 0'31.917 7 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 0'33.395 8 Anthony West Kawasaki AUS 0'41.194 9 Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 0'43.214 10 Michel Fabrizio Honda ITA 0'44.459 11 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1'1.894 12 Kurtis Roberts KR212V USA 1'10.721 13 Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN -2 Laps 14 Carlos Checa Honda ESP -3 Laps

Rider Standings 15/07/2007

Pos. Rider Manu. Nat. Points 1. Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 196 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 164 3. Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 144 4. John Hopkins Suzuki USA 103 5. Marco Melandri Honda ITA 97 6. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 93 7. Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 88 8. Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 77 9. Nicky Hayden Honda USA 73 10. Alex Barros Ducati BRA 69 11. Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 60 12. Toni Elias Honda ESP 49 13. Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 40 14. Carlos Checa Honda ESP 27 15. Shinya Nakano Honda JPN 25 16. Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 23 18. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 18

Team Standings 15/07/2007

Pos. Team Points 1. Ducati Marlboro Team 273 2. FIAT Yamaha Team 252 3. Repsol Honda Team 217 4. Rizla Suzuki 196 5. Honda Gresini 146 6. Pramac D'Antin 129 7. Kawasaki Racing Team 69 8. Tech3 Yamaha 41 9. Honda LCR 27 10. Konica Minolta Honda 25 11. Team Roberts 12 12. none 6

Manufacturer Standings 15/07/2007

Pos. Manufacturer Points 1. Ducati 208 2. Yamaha 184 3. Honda 174 4. Suzuki 131 5. Kawasaki 64 6. KR212V 12