Sepang MotoGP: James Toseland bemoans engine performance

James Toseland and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team-mate Colin Edwards bemoaned a lack of engine power as both former World Superbike champion’s struggled on the opening day of the Malaysian MotoGP.

Toseland had a nightmare return to the track where he suffered his massive winter testing high-side in February, the 28-year-old frustrated by a lack of engine power on his Yamaha YZR-M1 to slump to 15th in opening practice.

The 28-year-old could only log a best time of 2.05.218 to finish a massive 3.038s adrift of pacesetter Jorge Lorenzo.

Using an old engine close to its mileage limit, Toseland struggled and he was second last on the top speed charts this afternoon, his YZR-M1 clocking a best speed of 185.78mph.

Only Aleix Espargaro’s Pramac Ducati was slower and Toseland’s bike was over 6mph slower than Dani Pedrosa’s factory Honda.

Toseland, who will fly straight out of Kuala Lumpur on Sunday night to take part in the Portimao WSB test early next week, said: “It has been a tough start but I knew it would be because I was running an old engine today and that had a big impact on our performance.

“For the rest of the weekend we’ll have a fresher motor in that should help because I was quite far down the speed charts.

“But I was struggling for side grip this afternoon. I’m running more corner speed to make up for the loss in acceleration and that is wearing the rear tyre quite quickly.

“And during that session we couldn’t find the side grip I needed to go faster.” Texan team-mate Edwards didn’t perform much better, the 35-year-old’s best time of 2.03.739 only securing him ninth position.

Edwards has complained previously about how the new engine durability rules impacted on the performance of his YZR-M1.

Yamaha had to sacrifice performance when rules were introduced in Brno limiting riders to just five engines for the final seven races, Edwards said: “My bike felt pretty terrible.

“I feel good on the bike and I’m riding as hard as I can but my bike felt pretty slow out there today if I’m being honest.

“I know this track like the back of my hand because we have come here so many times to race and test and we’ve got a particular gearbox setting where I know exactly what is going to happen on the track.

“But we’ve got to change the gearing tomorrow because I was braking so much later than normal because I just wasn’t carrying the speed down the straight.

“The problem it gave me was that to make up any time you’ve got to ride much faster in the corners.

“But that means you wear the side of the tyre really quick, and with these high ground temperatures it is wearing the tyre much faster than I want.”