British MotoGP: James Toseland eyes home top six

James Toseland is confident he can challenge for the top six in tomorrow’s British MotoGP race after he equalled his best qualifying result at Donington Park this afternoon.

The 28-year-old will start the 30-lap race from ninth on the grid as he bounced back from a disappointing morning practice session at the Leicestershire circuit.

Toseland, who had a disastrous British GP debut 13 months ago when he finished 17th following a first lap crash, clocked a best time of 1.29.270 on his penultimate lap of qualifying.

That was just 0.095s away from Toni Elias in eighth and 0.4s off Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Colin Edwards in sixth.

The double World Superbike champion had been running as high as fifth place with 25 minutes remaining before he slipped outside of the top ten.

But he produced a brilliant late run to claim ninth on the grid for the third time in the last five races.

The Yorkshireman said: “I’m happy but at the same time a little bit frustrated because we didn’t have a really good base setting this morning.

“That meant we had quite a bit of work to do this afternoon but thanks to my guys because they did a great job again.

“I improved quite a bit but if we had started this morning like we ended this afternoon then I’m sure I could have qualified on the second row.

“The base set-up didn’t work so well because we were too hard on the front and rear. I didn’t have much feel at all and I was only doing low 1.32s, so to do 1.29s this afternoon I’m really happy.

At least I’ve given myself a good chance of battling for that top six tomorrow and that was always my target.

“Today was definitely better than last year’s qualifying, although it couldn’t really have got much worse. Obviously I’m desperate to get a good result tomorrow.

“I want to make amends for the disappointment of last year and give the British fans something to cheer about.

“The support out there today was amazing, and they deserve a good result. I can promise them I’ll be giving it my absolute maximum.”

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