The crash could have spiralled into a black weekend, especially when he finished 17th and last by the end of the first day, but JT salvaged the situation today by qualifying just 1.059 seconds off Casey Stoner’s record-busting pace.
At 2.281 miles/3.671 kilometres in length, the Sachsenring is the shortest but one of the 18 circuits on the
MotoGP calendar (Laguna Seca’s 2.243 miles is the shortest), yet it may also be the most difficult to master due to the several blind apex points on its roller-coaster layout.
"It’s the most technical track I’ve learnt in years," Toseland said as he left his pitbox today. "On other tracks there’s usually only one blind apex, but on this one there are three consecutive left-handers that are blind.
"You have to get the throttle setting right for the first one to keep the momentum through the next one and the final one, or it all starts to barrel-roll."
Toseland will now start his first race on the Sachsenring tomorrow from the fourth row, starting between
Alex de Angelis on the San Carlos Gresini Honda and
Toni Elias on the Alice Ducati.
Toseland put in his usual prodigious work ethic to achieve this - his best lap of 1 minute 22.126-seconds came on the 111th of 112 laps of practice and qualifying, the equivalent of doing a grand prix race distance every morning and every afternoon for two days. Behind that effort was an equal commitment from his crew, led by the veteran Frenchman Guy Coulon.
"We’ve had problems since
Donington, so we had some really serious meetings here to find out what they were," Toseland said. "Yesterday we eradicated a lot of things that could have worked but didn’t. When you hit a brick wall like that, you can only rely on the team to give you something to improve the package.
"I had four qualifiers here but couldn’t break out of the 1-23s. Then the guys made a small change to the rear and I went a second quicker. I ended up only half a second off the front row."
Saturday am - Pasini, de Puniet and Smith are GP Racing’s Top Crashers
Bradley Smith this morning became the most frequent crasher in 125cc GPs, when he came off his Polaris World Aprilia for the 13th time this season during the free practice session. That must hurt - the rider’s morale and the team’s budget, as well as Bradley’s 17-year-old bones.
