Tech3 Yamaha’s James Toseland is praying for dry session at Phillip Island’s MotoGP round as his wet-weather setup is once again causing problems.

In this morning’s dry first practice, the British former World Superbike Champion was only three tenths of a second away from the front row, but that position plummeted as soon as the heavens opened.

“It was really good this morning and I was really happy. We’d found a good direction and the bike was working pretty well. I was only a tenth off third place and I used the same rear tyre for the whole session," said the Yorkshireman.

"We made a change halfway through with the rear shock to get a bit more grip on the exit of corners and it was working well and I could run consistent times. If I’d have had that set-up when the tyre was a bit better then I would have been in the top three and that would have been really encouraging.

"But in the rain we didn’t find anything that improved my feeling. We made plenty of changes but we couldn’t get a good direction to solve the problems. I just couldn’t get out of the corners and we couldn’t cure it. The rear was spinning up as soon as I touched the throttle, so we haven’t got the balance of the rear right.

"At least it is looking dry on the forecasts for tomorrow so we can build on what we found this morning. But for the wet we need to find a new setting. I know the problem we are having but unfortunately we are not curing it. We are all working hard but we’ll have a sit down and have a re-think because it is nothing like the feeling I have in the dry."