Wet weather woes for Toseland

The English weather has not been kind to Britain’s James Toseland on day two of his first-ever home GP at Donington Park today. Difficult track conditions, caused by intermittent wet weather, have made Toseland and his Tech 3 Yamaha team work even harder to find the optimum set-up for the 2.7-mile track. It means that Toseland finishes the day with his worst qualifying position of the season to date – 16th place at the head of the final row of the grid.

Toseland slid off the track during morning practice today and, with eight-and-a-half minutes remaining was unable to get back to the Tech 3 Yamaha garage to complete the session aboard his second bike. The 27-year-old banged his knee during the incident but was uninjured.

He returned to the track for the afternoon’s qualifying session and was making progress – proving once again, as he did in yesterday’s dry practice sessions, that he can keep pace with the frontrunners at Donington Park. However, incorrect tyre selection with only five minutes of the session remaining led to the Isle of Man resident uncharacteristically high-siding twice in one lap.

It means that the British rider has a huge amount of work ahead of him in tomorrow’s 30-lap race. “It’s obviously hugely disappointing to have my worst qualifying session of the season at my home Grand Prix,” says James. “I didn’t make the most of my best qualifying tyre and then I tried to push too hard towards the end on the wrong tyre for the job.

“Having said that, I couldn’t be expected to go out there and not try my best. Unfortunately, I tried too hard and paid the price. This weekend was always going to be difficult and the bad weather has just added to that. I’ve got a tough job ahead of me tomorrow and a lot of hard work, so I’m hoping for some dry weather. However, as always I will try my best and the support of my home crowd will help to spur me on. ”

Toseland’s supporters will be hoping that the rider’s BKS special edition St George’s flag leathers that he will wear tomorrow will bring him more luck than he has had today.
Keep up to date with all James Toseland news at www.jamestoseland.com

Qualifying
1. C. Stoner 1’38.232; 2. V. Rossi +0.649; 3. C. Vermeulen +0.786; 4. N. Hayden +1.038; 5. C. Edwards +1.369; 6. A. Dovizioso +1.551; 7. A. West +1.763; 8. B. Spies +2.012; 9. D. Pedrosa +2.118; 10. S. Nakano +2.185; 16. J. Toseland +3.519