By Peter McLaren
It was never going to be easy, but
James Toseland left his first
MotoGP test having been, in the words of team principal Herve Poncharal, transformed 'from a Superbike rider into a MotoGP rider'.
After a rain-shortened 29-lap introduction to the Tech 3 team, the YZR-M1 and the Sepang grand prix circuit, the reigning double World Superbike champion completed 60 circulations on day two and a further 53 laps on day three.
Although he remained tenth and last of the full-time MotoGP racers, Toseland beat some of the Yamaha Test Team riders and reduced his best lap time from 2min 5.438secs, to 2min 4.278secs, and then 2mins 3.550secs over the three days.
Toseland thus left Malaysia 1.7secs behind the fastest race tyre lap, set by team-mate
Colin Edwards, and half a second from fellow Yamaha MotoGP rookie
Jorge Lorenzo, who had prior knowledge of both track and machine.
"It's gone really well," Toseland told
Crash.net at Sepang. "It was a new track, over two minutes long, and I've been able to lap around three-quarters of a second off the race pace in last month's Malaysian Grand Prix.
Valentino Rossi's best race time here was a 2mins 2.9secs and I did a 2mins 3.5secs - on the same specification bike - so I'm quietly satisfied with that.
"It's one thing just getting to the MotoGP level and another thing to find out for yourself that the challenge is doable," he continued. "So when you come up against respected riders like Jorge Lorenzo [out on track] and they're not disappearing into the distance - it's encouraging.
"The MotoGP bike is a prototype so the limits are a lot further forward than with the Superbike. I can't make direct comparisons [due to his Ten Kate Honda contract], but the MotoGP bike is definitely much more intense in all areas.
"It was a big gamble for Herve [Poncharal] and the team to take on a Superbike rider, so it's nice that the team all have smiles on their faces and we've really set ourselves a good benchmark to move forward with," he concluded.
