Tech 3 boss predicts Toseland podium

After a long fallow period, caused partly by Michelin's troubles, Toseland showed better form in Italy to equal his MotoGP career best result after a huge tussle with the Suzukis and Andrea Dovizioso.

"It was a fantastic race from James and I am really pleased to see him back up there fighting as we know he can do," said Poncharal.

"When he suffers the whole team suffers and it is not been an easy period for him, but he has never let his head drop and he always kept his motivation and given Tech 3, Yamaha and Michelin 100 per cent.

"This result will give him a big boost for the remainder of the season, and maybe a podium is not impossible before the end. He came under a lot of pressure but he kept concentrated and showed the James we saw at the start of the season."

Toseland agreed that the Misano result was a huge boost after his recent difficulties.

"Coming from where I'd been in the last few races and to produce a ride like that was brilliant," he said. "That is what I'm here for and I really enjoyed it. I was about ten feet wide on those last few laps and probably the widest Yamaha in history.

"Michelin has had a lot of stick recently but they have knuckled down and so have I. We have kept working hard and today we showed what we can achieve together with Tech 3 and Yamaha."

While Toseland celebrated his breakthrough result, his teammate Colin Edwards could only manage 10th after losing a lot of ground on the opening lap.

"I thought it was going to be tough, but not that tough and obviously I wanted to do better for my guys at Tech 3 who tried everything to solve some of our issues here," he said.

"Unfortunately some of the issues we can't control, and I was struggling for grip in the early stages. I just couldn't get any temperature in the rear tyre and I didn't have the confidence to push like I wanted to.

"Those first three laps just dictated my result because once I got into my pace my lap times were pretty decent and good enough to be fighting much further up. But I lost too much in the early part of the race."