MotoGP Jerez test: James Toseland rues rain error

James Toseland was left to rue his decision to wait for track conditions to improve as he finished outside of the top ten in this afternoon’s 40-minute BMW qualifying shootout.

The Tech 3 Yamaha rider was 12th quickest as he posted a 1.52.755 on his last and 11th lap.

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That was nearly 3.5s slower than fastest rider Casey Stoner as Toseland was punished for his decision to sit in the pits for the opening ten minutes to wait for conditions to improve.

The session had started in dry conditions but on a soaked track after heavy morning rainfall, and Toseland gambled on waiting for the surface to dry towards the end of the session before having a crack at winning the BMW Z4 Roadster.

But it was a decision that backfired as conditions deteriorated the more the track surface dried.

The 27-year-old British rider said: “I have never known a drying track get slower and that’s where I went wrong. I thought I’d sit it out the first ten minutes and wait for it to dry and get a bit more grip. But the longer it went on the less grip there was and that was a big lesson learned for me.

“Everybody went straight out and put their fast time in and it completely caught me out. It’s amazing really as the track was drying out that I couldn’t drop my lap times.”

Toseland was disappointed that the heavy early rain didn’t continue as he impressed in full wet conditions this morning.

He was fifth quickest with a best time of 1.52.939, which had left him only 1.5s slower than factory Ducati rider Casey Stoner.

“It’s a shame because yesterday in the dry I was good and this morning in the full wet I was good too. I was looking to put on a good show for the team but unfortunately it didn’t happen.

“I just couldn’t get the grip I needed on the drying track. I was pushing but this morning in the full wet I did a 52.9, but this afternoon I could only do 52.7 on a drying track, so that shows the problem.

“But I still learned something, which is the important thing and we will be better prepared the next time we encounter those conditions, ”added the double World Superbike champion.