The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 squad incurred an excellent start to the 80th staging of the infamous Dutch TT at Assen.

In odd warm temperatures up to 27ºC, Colin Edwards had a welcome return to form at the legendary Assen track. The American raced to the circuit with a fresh front end geometry setting on his YZR-M1 engine, and instantly felt more confident with the abilitiy to show his true class following a difficult start to the season.

Capitalising very well on the improved turning performance from his front end amendments, Edwards ended fourth and was only 0.013s behind the top three.

“I really needed that after a tough start to the season and thanks to my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 who have been working really hard to improve my situation,” states the American. “I really like Assen and the change they made on the back section made it feel a little bit more like the old circuit.”

“My bike is quite a bit different to what it has been this season and I'm running a front geometry setting that is a lot different to what I've ever run before,” he continues. “I'm just trying to make the bike turn easier and feel a little more natural and it is similar to the setting that Valentino and Jorge like. I've got a lot more confidence than Silverstone because that was not a positive weekend at all. This track is a lot more free flowing and you have to keep a lot of momentum and that suits my style. And I can just get the bike to turn better and that's where I've been lacking. Now the bike feels great and I'm looking forward to a good weekend.”

Ben Spies also proved to be a strong contendor in the afternoon, the reigning World Superbike champion was determined to gain on the momentum following his brilliant maiden MotoGP podium in the last round at Silverstone.

The Texan produced a variety of consistent laps and in the last ten minutes, moved quickly into the top four. A best lap of 1’35.942 saw Spies arrive in eighth position but was only 0.020s away from the top six.

The warm conditions saw circuit temperatures soar to 44ºC, Spies spent the category on the hard compound Bridgestone rear tyre option, in order to gain crucial data ahead of Saturday's 26 lap round. He will make minor adjustments to improve turning performance on his YZR-M1 and is confident of gaining his first top six grid position in the qualifying session.

“It was a decent session though we definitely need to make a couple of changes to the bike to make it a bit better in the longer turns,” says Spies. “I had quite a good set-up at Silverstone to make the bike more nimble and we started with that setting here. But it wasn't working that well so we'll go back to what we know works tomorrow and I'm confident it should be better. I worked a lot on the hard race tyre and I'm definitely happy with the performance and the balance of the bike. I just need to make the bike turn better when I'm on the throttle. I 'm really happy with corner entry but I'm losing a lot on the longer turns.”

The rookie adds, “The target tomorrow will be to get on the second row and I've not managed that yet. But the times are so close that with a couple of improvements to the bike I'm sure that a top six is a realistic target. Looking at my last eight laps I'm not far off at all and I'm looking forward to another positive weekend.”