Fantastic fifth for Toseland

Le Mans MotoGP, Practice, 30 May 2008

James Toseland has finished fifth fastest in today’s two practice sessions at Mugello in Italy for round six of the MotoGP Championship. The Brit has shown great progress over the course of the day after moving from 13th at the end of the day’s first session to fifth overall.

The Tech 3 Yamaha rider topped the timesheets for the majority of the afternoon session and with just five minutes to go still held the advantage in the wet session. However, in the closing minutes, the track started to dry and the 27-year-old was forced down into fifth place.

Toseland attributes his fast progress at the circuit to the post-event testing that he took part in after the last round at Tech 3 Yamaha’s home track of Le Mans in France. The Isle of Man resident’s results at the opening rounds in Qatar and Jerez were proof of the importance of pre-race testing to his progress.

“I’m really pleased with the progress we’ve made today at Mugello and I’m hoping that we can repeat the same performance in the dry conditions that have been forecast for the rest of the weekend. I’m determined to get my results back on track this weekend and secure a strong race result to improve my championship position.

“I’ve got some tracks coming up that I know really well, which I’m looking forward to and I’m focussing on the future rather than looking back. The bike and team is working really well, so the rest is down to me.”

Keep up to date with Toseland’s progress at Mugello at www.jamestoseland.com.

Practice results
1. C. Vermeulen 2’01.500; 2. N. Hayden +0.510; 3. C. Stoner 0.805; 4. V. Rossi +0.827; 5. J. Toseland +0.912; 6. J. Lorenzo +1.062; 7. A. Dovizioso +1.069; 8. R. de Puniet +0.2.068; 9. C. Edwards +2.086; 10. D. Pedrosa +2.199