Toseland delighted with second row start

The Briton, who qualified second at Qatar on his MotoGP debut, was relieved to end a disappointing run after qualifying outside the top ten for the last three races, following his excellent start to his rookie MotoGP year where he'd started in the top eight at each of the first seven rounds.

His 1:21.848 on his last set of qualifying tyres was good enough for fifth on the grid and was confident that the time would be good enough for the second row.

"I thought that once we got on the qualifiers with a bit more grip I could get up there," said Toseland. "I had to pin it because to do a 21 around here is not easy, but I got the job done.

"I feel we've deserved it after our bad luck over the last rounds, we've all kept plugging away and nobody has dropped their head, and now we're on the second row, which is great.

"I came across the line and saw 21.8 on the dash and I was hoping that would be good enough for the first two rows. I was just hoping that was going to keep me there and it did."

Toseland is eager to make a good start tomorrow to stay with the leaders and hopes to earn his fifth top six finish of the season.

"I've got the softer race tyre which I saved for today and kept one back for the race," he added." I can do mid to low 23s on that, and that could be a possible top six finish. I'd be satisfied with that.

"I just need a decent start to try to get away with the leaders. I'm getting the hang of the starts and I'm not as nervous as before because it's quite a technique to get these bikes off the line. When you're at 14,000 revs you want to dump that clutch as fast as you can, but you really need to know what you're doing."