Toseland: “Ben and Colin deserve the ride”

Despite the obvious disappointment of losing his Tech 3 Yamaha MotoGP ride, James Toseland has given his backing to Ben Spies and Colin Edwards for next years championship.

Toseland accepts that his ride in the Tech 3 Yamaha squad was untenable given team-mate Colin Edwards’ stunning pace during 2009 and Ben Spies’ unprecedented rookie WSB campaign.

Toseland said: “At the end of the day Ben does deserve a crack at MotoGP, it’s just unfortunate that there is only one satellite Yamaha team in the series. He had to replace either myself or Colin and it has obviously been me. With the way Colin has ridden this year he deserves to keep his ride because he’s ridden great, but I don’t think it’s the ideal situation having two Americans in the team for commercial reasons.”

“Now I’ve got three races left in MotoGP and I’m only 12 points off seventh and there’s good possibility of a strong finish even in a tough season like this. If I can achieve that then I can walk out of here with my head held high.”