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Herve Poncharal has gained some excellent results throughout the year so far from his American competitor Colin Edwards,
however Sunday’s event at the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini was filled with disaster for
the Texan rider as he smashed out on the initial corner following a clash with Alex de Angelis.
Commenting on the
accident, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 boss says, “Before we started the race in Misano it had been a really good season
so far for Colin, finishing all the races in the points and he was fifth in the championship. This is our first DNF of the
year with Colin, thanks to Mr De Angelis and that won’t be a good memory for us this season. So (Andrea) Dovizioso has
passed us and we are sixth in the Riders’ championship. The team is still fourth in the Teams’ standings though,
20 points ahead of Suzuki.”
Summing up the year so far, Poncharal continues, “It has been good, Colin
has shown good results in qualifying and races. The best moment so far was Donington where he almost won the race and finished
second behind Dovizioso. I am happy so far because we know that the first four guys, when Casey is here, and three guys at
the moment, Valentino (Rossi), Jorge (Lorenzo) and Dani (Pedrosa), are almost untouchable and most of the time we are first
behind this group, so this is good.”
“We have to thank Yamaha for this because their support is fantastic
and I also have to congratulate Colin, because even though he is not the youngest rider on the grid he is pushing a lot and
he is fulfilling his mission every weekend.”
With focus on the other side of the Tech 3 pit-box to James
Toseland, who places 13th in the rankings, Poncharal adds, “It is not very easy with James this year, because although
he is very motivated, pushing and giving the best that he can the results are quite disappointing, especially when you compare
them to Colin’s and you have in mind that the Yamaha is the best bike in the championship. We are trying to help him,
to understand what he needs and we are not going to give up, because we still have another four races to go and we hope he
can show his true potential.”
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