It was an eventful weekend for James Toseland in Andalusia. He gave a piano recital in a castle on Friday night, contracted bronchitis and became the first Briton since Niall McKenzie 18 years ago to record back-to-back finishes in the top six of motorcycling's elite. The bearpit of the Spanish Grand Prix also caused the MotoGP World Championship to boil over in dramatic, error-strewn fashion.

Dani Pedrosa, the Repsol Honda rider, led from the start to rub salt into the wounds of Jorge Lorenzo, the swaggering Spanish rookie, who has managed to get beneath his skin. Lorenzo complained that Pedrosa would not shake his hand on Saturday and their mutual dislike is never more than thinly veiled.

Lorenzo is a star in the making and, while Pedrosa could numb a paint-drying executive with his professionalism, the new kid on the block has his own brass band, plants flags to claim “Lorenzo's Land” when he wins and is taking acting lessons. They are chalk and cheese, and the frayed tempers will continue all season.

Lorenzo had no answer yesterday, though, and Valentino Rossi, his Fiat Yamaha team-mate, was the meat in this spicy Spanish sandwich. Rossi miscounted the laps and began celebrating his second place too early until urged to make one more circuit, but his mistake was as nothing compared with those of Casey Stoner, the world champion. Stoner knew that his Ducati was not suited to Jerez, but crashed in practice, crashed in qualifying and ran off the circuit twice yesterday. He finished eleventh and drops to fourth place in the championship.

Toseland stays in sixth position after dredging his spirit for a courageous ride on the Tech 3 Yamaha. He lost a place to Loris Capirossi on the final corner, but was aggressive enough to ensure that it was not two by almost forcing Andrea Dovizioso into a spot of grass-tracking.

It was some effort because Toseland has cut a sorry figure here. He has been suffering from a fever and had to get special permission to take the right antibiotics as they would have breached the sport's doping rules. In these circumstances, it was damage-limitation with bells on. “I'm not too good, but I want to thank the mobile clinic for pumping everything into me,” he said. “It's one of the hardest races I've ever had.”

Rossi's display was also significant. For the first time in years, he has a team-mate who is on a par with him. Coming from fifth on the grid, the result showed that he is far from a spent force, but he has not won for five races, his longest drought since the first of his 62 MotoGP victories, at the British Grand Prix in 2000.

Bradley Smith, who has qualified on pole in both 125cc races this season, was an impressive third on his Polaris World Aprilia, inspiring hope of a first British win in the class for 35 years.

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