James Toseland ‘shocking’ in rain conditions

British rider James Toseland admitted his performance in this afternoon’s wet practice session was ‘shocking’.

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The Tech 3 Yamaha rider’s dwindling confidence in wet conditions suffered another big dent today when he could only finish 18th in a rain-lashed second free practice session.

Toseland, who will celebrate his 28th birthday on Sunday, was a massive 5.2s off the fastest pace and only Marco Melandri ended up slower.

This afternoon’s performance was in stark contrast to his positive start to the Australian GP, with Toseland an impressive 10th in bright and sunny conditions this morning.

He was only two-tenths off claiming a top three position, but he could not hide his disappointment after another woeful showing in the wet.

“This afternoon was a shocking session and we have got to do something about it. It is not good enough, it’s as simple as that, “said Toseland. “In the rain we didn’t do anything that improved my feeling.

“We made plenty of changes but we couldn’t get a good direction to solve the problems. I just couldn’t get out of the corners and we couldn’t cure it. The rear was spinning up as soon as I touched the throttle so we haven’t got the balance of the rear right.

“At least it is looking dry on the forecasts for tomorrow so we can build on what we found this morning. But for the wet we need to find a new setting. I know the problem we are having but unfortunately we not curing it.

“We are all working hard but we’ll have a sit down and have a re-think because it is nothing like the feeling I have in the dry. There’s not as much grip in the wet but the bike should be feeling pretty similar in terms of balance, but it doesn’t.”

Toseland’s consolation was his fast and consistent speed this morning and he said: “It was really good this morning and I was really happy. We’d found a good direction and the bike was working pretty well. I was only a tenth off third place and I used the same rear tyre for the whole session.

“We made a change halfway through with the rear shock just to get a bit more grip on the exit of the corner and it was working well and I could run consistent times. If I’d have had that set-up when the tyre was a bit better then I would have been in the top three and that would have been really encouraging.”