Rebuilding continues in Jerez for Toseland
Added on Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Rebuilding continues in Jerez for Toseland
Toseland did show a glimmer of his potential during the final session of the recent test in Qatar, but was still more than a second over his Monster Energy Tech 3Yamaha teammate Colin Edwards.
Toseland has insisted throughout that, with more time on the Yamaha M1, his confidence will return and that rebuilding process recommences this weekend in Southern Spain.
“It wasn’t easy in our last test in Qatar but on the last night I felt like we were finding a good direction and I was certainly feeling a lot more comfortable on the bike,” he said.
“The crash in Sepang hit my confidence and it took me a while to find my rhythm, but I feel I can go much faster now.
“I just need time on the bike, which will start in Jerez.”
Meanwhile, Toseland’s teammate Colin Edwards has been taken aback by the new Bridgestone rubber that the team will be running on in 2009.
Tech 3 is one of five teams that will be doing away with Michelin rubber under the new single-tyre rule and Edwards has been surprised by the endurance of the new tyres.
“In Qatar it was weird and something that I’m not accustomed to, but the tyres were actually getting better the more laps I did on them,” he told MCN. “It was screwing with my head and I came in and said, ‘how is that possible?’
“There was obviously some drop in performance, but strangely it comes back and gets better. It is freaking me out because I’ve never experienced it.
“The grip just gets more consistent so you can just focus on the riding. Instead of the bike being all twitchy or some inconsistency corner to corner, it just got real consistent.
“You’re not worrying about anything with the tyre and it is unbelievable. About 11 laps into the race simulation and it started getting better, kept getting better to about lap 14 and I could have probably done ten more laps and it would have felt the same.”
