Colin Edwards and Aleix Espargaro teamed up for the first time on Tuesday as NGM Mobile Forward Racing ran its 2014 machine in Valencia.

Edwards remains with the Italian squad for a third year, whereas Espargaro moves across from Spain’s Power Electronics Aspar. For next season, Forward will be competing with a FTR-Yamaha package, with the Yamaha components of frame, engine and swingarm being provided on a lease basis under new regulations for 2014.

“It was a pleasure!” reported Edwards. “Obviously, I have a long history with Yamaha and it was nice to get ‘back home’. It feels good and the bike is good. We are still building and obviously had some initial comments today about seating position and handlebar position; whenever you are building a bike, you always run into these things, but it is feeling good.

“The geometry feels good, I’m happy with it, but I definitely had an issue with the electronics. We didn’t use something we have spent all year developing…you might ask yourself why: with Yamaha we have to take it one step at a time, let’s say, and they have a programme they wanted to put in and get some initial feedback on.”

As Edwards proudly described the bike as a ‘freight train’, Espargaro’s running was also limited but the Granollers rider was similarly impressed with the package.

“I’m happy,” he said. “I only did 17 laps today because we only have one bike and Colin was using it in the afternoon – so Colin used it this afternoon and I will continue working tomorrow. The first impression is really, really good. The bike is working really well and FTR has done a really good job in just four weeks’ time.

“We have a lot of work to do on electronics and also on the FTR things, such as the fairing, but after the first day and only half an hour on the track I’m really happy.”

Forward’s programme will continue on Wednesday, although forecasters are continuing to predict that rain will fall at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.