James Toseland battled through 22 laps of pure hell to finish 13th in the Cardion ab Grand Prix of the Czech Republic in Brno yesterday afternoon.

Tyre problems never gave the 27-year-old Ramsey resident a chance on his Tech 3 Yamaha at the 3.357 mile circuit where he finished first and second in the World Superbike Championship last year.

Despite those major tyre problems, he battled to the finish to pick up a couple of World Championship points and remained positive afterwards.

"We've had another tough weekend with rain once again affecting qualifying and causing difficulties with set-up. With that in mind, I'm satisfied to have just been able to finish the race. Picking up a couple of points was an added bonus. We've now got to put this race behind us as further experience and focus on tomorrow's test and the next race at Misano."

Valentino Rossi was gifted victory after Casey Stoner crashed when he was comfortably ahead.

Reigning world champion Stoner was one second clear of Rossi when, under no particular pressure, he skidded into the gravel on lap six.

His Ducati was too badly damaged for him to continue and Rossi went on to win, ahead of Toni Elias in second and Loris Capirossi in third.

Toseland is eleventh in the overall championship standings, two points behind Capirossi, while Rossi now has a 50 point lead over Stoner.