China MotoGP reaction: James Toseland upbeat after lowly 12th

James Toseland vowed to bounce back from his worst MotoGP result to date in Le Mans later this month after he had a tough ride to 12th on Shanghai today.

The British rider was powerless to stop himself slipping down the field from eighth at the end of the first lap as he found the going tough having struggled to find a set-up on his first visit to the challenging China venue.

Italian duo Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Melandri swept by on lap two to drop Tech 3 Yamaha rider James Toseland to 10th and while he briefly got back into ninth, Loris Capirossi moved by on lap seven and Shinya Nakano two laps later.

Toseland was dropped to 12th on lap 11 when he was passed by the D’Antin Ducati of Toni Elias but he managed to fend off Randy de Puniet by just 0.2secs to clinch 12th.

It was Toseland’s first result outside of the top ten in four races but he remained positive.

He said “I don’t want to be finishing 12th but in my first season this type of result is going to happen.  I had a few problems with the set-up all weekend, which hasn’t helped with me learning the track.

“I got a decent start but really found it difficult with the setting I had. We were going to try something this morning but it was wet and we gambled with it for the race. On paper it looked really good but unfortunately it wasn’t quite right.

“You don’t need too many problems to finish 12th in MotoGP. I had a small problem and it was costing me a lot of time in the important places and that was the difference between a top eight finish and being down in 12th. 

“On the brakes the weight transfer was really fast. As I was on the brakes and turning in the rear was skating and not planted on the way into the corner. I was waiting too long for it to load up again before I could get on the power.

And the double world superbike champion added: “The problem with the 800s is they don’t have a great deal of torque so you have got to keep the corner speed up. If you are struggling to get into the corner and carry that corner speed you can’t square anything off so I was finding it difficult on the entry and exit.

“Because of that I was slow mid-corner and on the exit, but losing that time costs you a second a lap and that is massive against these guys. That is the disadvantage of not knowing the track though.”