Colin Edwards took his debut MotoGP pole at Le Mans today after
a close Qualifying session ahead of tomorrow's French Grand
Prix. The 33-year-old Texan's achievement was made all the
more impressive as it followed a crash in this morning's practice
session, when his M1 high-sided and he fell hard into the gravel
trap at turn two. His Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi was also
a front-row contender but was edged out in the closing seconds
and will start from fourth tomorrow, the first time this season that
he starts off the front- row. Proving there were no problems
remaining after his eventful morning, Edwards was quickly
running consistently at the top of the standings as he looked to
perfect the race set-up of his Yamaha. After yesterday's issues
Rossi had shown considerable improvement this morning and he
too was looking to use this afternoon's session to continue his
progress towards finding the right race setting. The closing
minutes of the session saw Rossi move into second behind Carlos
Checa before the Italian was nudged down a place by Casey
Stoner. Edwards meanwhile, having made a small mistake with
his first qualifying tyre, was determined to make the most of his
second and the Texan Tornado stormed into pole with a perfect
final lap in a time of 1'33.616, a new record for this circuit.