Monster Yamaha's James Tosland reckons he isn't ready to give up even though rear grip woes are making his Mugello MotoGP round a frustrating experience.

The former World Superbike Champion finished today's qualifying session in 14th place, a full second behind team-mate Colin Edwards who is on the second row after getting some tips from Valentino Rossi.

“I'm pretty frustrated because I feel I should be much higher up the grid. As I know from other races earlier this season, while I can run the lap times from around sixth to tenth place, the times in this class are so close that it can be hard to fight your way through in the race," said Toseland.

"So being on the fifth row makes it incredibly difficult. We were playing around with the suspension settings all weekend and been going in the right direction, but when I upped my pace on the softer compound tyre the rear shock setting wasn't quite right.

"When the rear tyre was loaded as I opened the throttle it just had a harsh feeling with little movement, so we weren't finding as much grip from the tyre as we could do. We made some changes in the session without making any big progress and right at the end on my last soft tyre we found something a bit better. But it was too late unfortunately and if we had found that direction a bit earlier it would have given me more time to build up my pace on the softer tyre.

"I'm frustrated because I feel I can be strong at this track, but I'll work hard with my guys tonight to try and find a better setting. I'm still confident that I can do good times in the race and gain a few places for a good result and as always I'll never give up."