Toseland ninth on the grid at Assen
JAMES Toseland equalled his best qualifying performance of the season in Assen today to boost hopes of a top six finish for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team in tomorrow's Dutch MotoGP race.
Toseland will start round seven of the 2009 world championship from ninth position on the grid, the British rider gaining more crucial experience on a radically revised YZR-M1 set-up.
It was Toseland's second successive top 10 grid position and showed the significant strides he has made recently in improving his qualifying performance.
The 28-year-old clocked a best time of 1.37.323 to finish just over a second off Valentino Rossi's pole position time and he was just over half-a-second away from fourth place.
Using a YZR-M1 with new footrest, handlebar and seating positions that he tried for the first time yesterday, Toseland is confident that he can claim his first top six finish of the campaign in tomorrow's 26-lap race.
"I'm really happy even though I'm only ninth again on the grid. We've spent a lot of time working on the race setting with the new set-up and I'm feeling really confident on race tyres."
"The weight we've put on the rear is really helping the Bridgestone work and its helping keep load on the tyre. We put a bit more weight on the rear again today and we're getting better rear grip. I'm just trying to work the rear tyre a lot more with that extra load on it and that means I can exit the corner a lot better."
"I've also got more stability going into the corner but on the softer tyres there was so much traffic that I got held up a bit otherwise I might have gained another couple of places."
"I had to roll off when I came across Toni Elias and that was a big shame because I'd just done my best first split of the whole session."
Toseland believes he's coming close to a pace that will see him challenge for the top six.
"Fingers crossed it will be dry tomorrow because I feel I'm getting close to where I need to be."
"After Catalunya I've done about 15 practice starts this week end because it is crucial that I get away to give myself a chance of a top six."
"I'm trying a slightly different clutch just to be a bit smoother because as I release the clutch it has been a bit aggressive in the first few races. But I'm desperate to give Yamaha and my guys at Tech 3 a good result after all the help they've been giving me this weekend."
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Weather for Dinnington
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
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