Mugello MotoGP: Arm pump hinders James Toseland

British rider James Toseland was delighted with his performance in Mugello today, despite being severely restricted by a rare arm pump problem in a hot and humid opening free practice session.

The 28-year-old struggled with fast direction changes at the technically challenging Mugello circuit in the early part of the session. 

And to compensate for the issue, the extra force he was using to steer his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 with his arms saw him develop an arm pump problem.

Toseland though was still satisfied with his best time of 1.51.401, which left him just 0.5s away from team-mate Colin Edwards, who ended in fifth. 

He said: “That wasn’t a bad session really and I’m pretty happy. I didn’t start off feeling very comfortable on the bike and it was really difficult to change direction with the setting I had at the start and it gave me arm pump and I never suffer with that.

“But because I was forcing the bike with my arms at the beginning of the session, once I’d got arm pump I couldn’t get rid of it. Without that I’m sure the package I had was capable of going another three of four tenths quicker and that would put me in the top six.

“I felt comfortable too on the hard tyre because the last time I was on that was in Sepang in testing when I had my big crash. So to be half-a-second off fifth place on that tyre, I guess we’re friends again. It was hot out there with 50 degrees on the ground but the hard tyre was working pretty well for me.

“I’m optimistic and confident for the rest of the weekend because the time I lost was my arm and not the bike, so I’m really looking forward to getting out there tomorrow and doing a good job.”