Toseland rues cautious start

A brief rain shower made the track treacherous in the early stages of the race, and Toseland fell from sixth on the grid to 10th, before regrouping to take seventh by the chequered flag.

"I had rain spots on the visor, and just with my lack of experience I didn't realise how much you could push in those conditions," he told BBC television.

"I wasn't aggressive enough in the first few laps and lost a bit of distance on the leaders. I needed to get with them."

This weekend was Toseland's first race at Estoril, and he felt his lack of circuit knowledge had proved critical.

"I didn't know the track, so to qualify on the second row and be fifth in the championship is encouraging," he said. "I knew it was going to be a tough weekend, and it was.

"That's the problem with not knowing the track. On the tracks that you do know, you've always got experience with those kind of conditions, and you know where the track's good even when rain falls. It sounds like an excuse, but I wasn't aggressive enough.

"It's a bit frustrating that I wasn't further towards the front, but I'm looking forward to getting to the tracks that I do know, and taking advantage of the new package that we've got."

But his Tech 3 Yamaha team boss Herve Poncharal said Toseland should be satisfied with his weekend.

"Seventh on a track like this, the first time he's been here, really quite close to the front, I think that's a good performance," Poncharal told the BBC.