By Peter McLaren

The Briton, riding a black 2007 Yamaha "the same spec as used at Valencia" and wearing red and white leathers, was one of the first out on track for the start of the three-day test.

Toseland went on to complete 29 laps, despite a small fall, before rain descended at 2pm. By that point, JT had dropped his best lap time from a 2min 9.472secs to a 2mins 5.438secs, placing him tenth and 2.405secs behind pace setter Randy de Puniet, who also fell.

"It's all new - the bike, the tyres, the suspension and the circuit - but it's nice to get out there and have a proper test on a GP bike," said James, speaking inside the Tech 3 pit. "I had a few laps on the [990cc] Honda and Ducati a few years ago so it was nice to get a full day in, or at least before the rain came, and I was quite pleased with the reduction in my lap time."

Toseland also spent some of his early laps following new team-mate Colin Edwards, a five year MotoGP 'veteran'.

"Colin is a good friend of mine. I was his team-mate back at Castrol Honda. He was in front for me this morning for a bit to show me the lines and he also sat me down a couple of times today to give me a couple of pointers," confirmed the #52. "He's hopefully going to teach me everything he knows, because he's got a lot of experience."

Edwards later explained the gesture.

"It's like a golf swing. If you're just running around on a new track on your own you, you might learn a few bad habits - and then not be able to shake them off," the Texan told Crash.net. "I waited for James when I first went out this morning, he got in behind me and I kinda showed him the correct two metres to be in at least - this track is so huge, it took me three years to learn - so hopefully it gave him a little bit of a head start… It's a lot of fun working with James."

Although the rain cleared at 3.30pm, the 5.542km track remained wet and a further rain storm eventually ruled out any further dry running. With afternoon rain a common occurrence at Sepang, Toseland now plans to ride through his lunch break on Friday to ensure he gets every lap possible.

"We were just getting it together and then we had a break for lunch, but tomorrow we won't do that - we'll just ride right through - because supposedly it rains here every day at around 3 o'clock," he said.

Looking forward, the #52 has a simple goal:

"I just need laps now. I'm looking forward to doing loads of laps to work out what the bike does and when it does it - because a GP bike is a lot different [to a Superbike], in terms of riding style and technique. I also need to work with the team so they can get an understanding of what I need from the bike and suspension, but for the first morning I'm pretty happy," he concluded.