Monster Yamaha's James Toseland reckons that a very soft front-end setting paid off for him in the first free practice session at MotoGP Indianapolis as he secured a provisional sixth-row place for Sunday's race.

The two-times World Superbike Champion was sitting in a front-row position until eight minutes from the end when Nicky Hayden Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo all put in late charges.

“I'm really happy with that session and it was definitely the positive way I wanted to start the weekend. For most of the session I was running in the top four or higher once I'd built up my confidence after the first few laps," said the Yorkshireman.

"I went with a wet setting that was a bit softer than usual and it worked really well and gave me a lot of confidence with the front-end. I could really push in the places where you could make up a bit of time and that helped me a lot.

"This track is really strange in the wet with the different sections of tarmac. Some places it can seem really dangerous with a lot of standing water and in another part the grip is phenomenal and it feels so good you can almost push like you're riding in the dry. Some sections of the track are so good in the wet it's better than Assen, and that was always the best track for grip in the wet.

"At times it almost feels like you are going from a wet to a dry track. You need to have a compromise with the setting because of that but my team did a great job today with the soft setting and if we get some more bad weather we look in really good shape. Hopefully it will be dry and we can put on a good show for the Indy fans."
Click here for times