Toseland targets qualifying improvement
Added on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Toseland targets qualifying improvement
James Toseland admits that he must improve his qualifying times if he is to make any movement up the rider’s championship and earn himself a prolonged stay in MotoGP.
After a difficult pre-season and disappointing early round results, Toseland stands a lowly 14th in the championship, failing to score a point at round one in Qatar, finishing ninth in Motegi and a lowly 13th at Jerez.
The Brit has already been given a ultimatum by team bosses to improve results and openly admitted after Jerez that his sub-par performances had to improve, particularly in qualifying.
“It was a tough weekend and we have got some issues to sort out,” he conceded. “We’re still trying a few things on the bike and I’m still searching for a comfortable setting over a race distance. I still need a second or so on race pace but I need to sort out qualifying too, because I’m giving myself too much to do by being too far back. You don’t need to be too far off but if you start at the back you stay at the back in a competitive class like this.”
Speaking ahead of the trip to Le Mans, the 2007 WSB champion added: “It has not been a great start to the season but I don’t feel we’re that far away. We’ve got a lot of information from the Jerez weekend and we’re eliminating things that we know don’t work. I’m confident we’re close to finding the setting I need and working hard with my guys to find it.”
Teammate Colin Edwards has been in more confident mood, claiming that the French GP is the most likely scene for his first ever Grand Prix win.
The Texan has claimed that Le Mans, home circuit for the Tech 3 Yamaha team, offers him the best opportunity yet of securing a first win in his seventh season in premier class racing.
Edwards was part of a Yamaha clean sweep at the circuit last season, finishing behind Fiat Yamaha duo Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo and after four seconds and six thirds, time is running out for the 35-year-old to snatch that first win.
“Let’s go to Le Mans. I’m ready,” said Edwards. “If I’m going to win a race, then it’s going to be there, as I’ve always gone good at the track.
“Now that the field has evened out with the tyres I’m really looking forward to the race,” he added following a disappointing round at Jerez.
“I’ve never liked this place. I had one good result here, and always spend the entire weekend setting up the bike. If we’d used this setting before then we would maybe have realised that it didn’t work either. We just had no rear grip and no real ‘push’ -something that we need to dip into the corners.”
