Toseland crashes twice on way to lowly 13th.

Unfortunate 2004 World Superbike champion James Toseland crashed twice during the weekend of WSBK testing at Valencia in Spain.

The young Brit left the circuit thoroughly battered and bruised from the two accidents, which were no fault of his own.

"Today we set off pretty good, got down to some decent times but unfortunately we had an oil leak and it flicked me off fast again, which makes it two crashes in two days that were not my fault! I banged my head badly and so I'm sitting here wondering what went wrong!" quipped Toseland.

Toseland only set the 13th fastest time after his intended lap using a qualifying tyre was red flagged due to the burning machinery of Renegade Koji rider Ben Bostrom.

"We put a qualifying tyre on at the end but then there was an inferno which brought the red flags out just as I started my last lap and that was it. Everybody had done theirs by then so it put me in thirteenth, just like in Qatar!" he added. "Unlucky for me at the moment but it can't last forever. I'm as fast as anyone on race tyres and I promise that you won't see me in thirteenth again this year."

Toseland's team-mate Regis Laconi was also unable to set a fast lap on a qualifying tyre, leaving him on fourth over-all. However, based upon his competitors race-tyre times, Laconi has worries for the races at Valencia.

"It's going to be a tough race for that reason when we come back here in April," commented Laconi. "Here we did well but it's easy in testing, racing is another thing. In the afternoon we found it difficult to improve our times, but what consoles me is that there were no riders who did more than seven or eight laps in succession. We did 12 in a long-run twice with the same tyre, at around low 1min 37secs, which is quite slow here.

"We worked a lot on my starts because we have to find the right configuration to start better. I normally don't start badly but in Qatar they were not so good. All things considered we are not that far from the top so I am quite satisfied," concluded Laconi.

This final official winter testing session at Valencia comes just two weeks before round two of the championship at Phillip Island (Australia), while the Spanish round will be held at the Ricardo Tormo circuit on April 24.