Sachsenring MotoGP: James Toseland still upbeat after tough start

British rider James Toseland refused to get too downhearted after he ended a nightmare first day at the Sachsenring with the slowest overall time.

The Tech 3 Yamaha rider clocked a best time of 1.23.864 late in the second free practice session but was still last and 17th overall.

The 27-year-old is still struggling to find a set-up to maximise rear grip on the entry to corners and he wasn’t helped by an early crash this morning on only his third lap as he tried to keep pace with Nicky Hayden.

Toseland also had an off track excursion in this afternoon’s session, but he refused to press the panic button despite his rookie season hitting a serious rocky patch.

He said: “It is quite a difficult track to learn and really technical. It is one of those tracks where it is blind in a lot of places and you need to keep on the throttle.

“We have tried a lot of things today, which has been interesting and right at the end I finally found a bit of rhythm in the 23s but then the chequered flag came out.

“We’ve been working between two settings to see which one is more comfortable and now at least we know the direction to go in to make the bike more ride able it looks a lot worse on paper than it is and I’m still upbeat.

“I’m bottom off the list but at the end I saw a bit of a light at the end of the tunnel, so fingers crossed it would be dry tomorrow. The problem is we are struggling to find the set-up for the shorter bike. It is much easier to find with the longer bike but that one has a few issues.

“With the shorter bike it is the same problem as before, there is too much weight transition on that bike under braking and I’ve not got much feel from the rear tyre on the entry. The crash on the third lap this morning put me off a bit.

“That was my mistake. I just touched the white line going into that left-hander and it just lost traction as I got back onto the tarmac and it just went.

“Both of my arms are black and blue and the stones are quite big in the gravel. I went in backwards and dug my arms in a bit and it has really battered them.”