Round 18. Valencia, Spain

With mixed conditions for qualifying, the Michelin riders enjoyed a positive session with many of the riders equipped with the French rubber dominating the top half of the timing sheet.

Toseland produced late heroics to claim his second top five grid position in the last three races. The British rider was dropped out of the top ten when he was badly baulked by Marco Melandri at the final corner on his third Michelin qualifier, just as he was poised to elevate himself into the top five.

The problem intensified the pressure on James to improve on his last qualifying tyre. The British rider though kept his composure superbly, delivering when it mattered to surge into fourth place with a best lap of 1.32.518.

This afternoon’s session was the first to be run in full dry conditions after another rain-hit weekend. With minimal time to find a dry set-up and make a tyre selection for what is expected to be a dry race, tomorrow morning’s warm-up session will be crucial for making last-minute tweaks.

James explained: “I’m really happy to be on the second row at the end because I had to pull a lap out under pressure after Melandri had baulked me at the last corner on my third qualifier. I wasn’t too worried because I thought he was going to start a fast lap, but as we came out of the final corner he didn’t really do anything. That was a bit disappointing but I had to deliver on my last qualifier. When you know it is the last tyre you know you can’t afford to make a mistake, and I did the first split nowhere near as good as I did on the previous tyre when I came across Melandri. The hardest part of this track is the first part because of the speed of the first corner and the preciseness of the second corner. Once you have got that section to the fourth corner done, the circuit flows a bit more, but I wasn’t aggressive enough in the early part. I needed to do a 32 and luckily I managed it. I just hope the warm-up is dry because we need to do some work on the dry set-up, but at least I’ve qualified well and hopefully I can get away with them and see how much grip there is. Any less than the second row and it is very difficult because it so hard to pass at this track. I really want to end the season on a high for the team. I’ve had flashes of brilliance and some disappointing results in my rookie season, so hopefully I’ve got one more flash in me tomorrow. It would be good to end on a high and go into the winter positive for 2009."