Monster Yamaha's Colin Edwards bagged his best MotoGP qualifying result since Valencia 2008 when he slid into fourth place earlier today for Sepang's MotoGP race, saying he has hardly touched the bike setup.

Edwards was only bettered by the Repsol Honda trio and was only three-tenths off a front-row start. The Texan, who leaves Tech3 next year for a CRT team, took some risks on the flying lap but thinks a top-five is possible tomorrow.

“I'm ecstatic with that result because to get a fourth place in any session against this level of competition is a pretty big achievement. I said yesterday that we rolled the bike out of the crate hot and today I felt even more confident. Usually I have a really good couple of tests in February and then come back for the race and I have an awful time. But with this year's chassis I'm really enjoying this track," said Edwards.

"We've barely moved away from the setting we left the second test with in February and the bike feels awesome. I'm pushing hard but I don't feel like I'm right on the limit like I have in some races and it relatively easy. I can ride smooth and the bike is turning really well. We'd like more traction, but in this heat and humidity the grip is always going to be the thing that's missing.

"I'm not far off the front row but I didn't leave anything out there. The lap I did my best time on, I took a couple of risks, so I couldn't have done any better. Fourth is my best qualifying result since Valencia in 2008. That seems like a long, long time ago, so it would be great to follow today up with a top five result tomorrow and send my awesome Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew home happy."