As American Colin Edwards, of the NGM Forward Racing Team, lands on Andalucian soil, he faces the still unique task of defending the lead in the CRT standings in the MotoGP™ class.

Having both qualified as the highest CRT entry and finished the race as highest placed CRT bike last time out in Qatar, expectations will be high for Jerez. However, Edwards has not been shy about the new project, describing the Suter-BMW occasionally as riding an angry bull around the track. In addition, pre-season tests at Jerez provided the team with the majority of problems, which may not bode well for the race.

Yet after a good start to the season, and further tests carried out in the meantime by the team´s Moto2™ rider Alex De Angelis on an electronics update should give Edwards a better platform to start this weekends race from.

Marco Curioni, Managing Director of the NGM Forward Racing Team remains optimistic despite the mountainous challenge that awaits:

"Jerez is an important step in our journey, our first European round in MotoGP™, the "start-up" of the full team structure with the new technical trucks and the renovated hospitality where for the first time this season we will be meeting the fans and guests. It is also the circuit at which we have tested the most this pre-season and where we have found the most difficulties.

"For Colin it will not be simple. He has established himself as CRT leader and has set standards that he has now to defend and Jerez is not he ideal scenario for our Suter-BMW - at least it was not the case during the last official pre-season tests. We continue working and making progress, who knows…I remain optimistic."

.