Crash.net columnist Mike Nicks is running an exclusive blog during this weekend's French Grand Prix at Le Mans - check back regularly to read his behind-the-scenes news...

Friday am - Toseland Goes Slower to Finish Higher

James Toseland is taking a go slower to get there faster approach to the business of learning the 2.597-mile Le Mans circuit this weekend.

Toseland is in the middle of a run of five circuits on which he has never previously raced, and he is disappointed with the 12th position - his worst of the year - that he achieved in the last round in China on his Tech 3 Yamaha.

He and manager Roger Burnett figure that part of the problem was that James was trying to conquer the 3.281-mile Shanghai track just too quickly. "If you try and learn it quickly, you're bound to be going throttle-brake, throttle-brake, throttle-brake," Burnett said.

The result was that Toseland inadvertently ended up with a setup that ran a lot of traction control. "We were braking hard, so we never had the balance of the bike right." Burnett said. "So here we're taking a different approach - learn slower, and build, build, build."

At Estoril, the first of the new-to-Toseland tracks, he was only 1.548 seconds behind the fastest rider, Dani Pedrosa, after the first day's practice. In qualifying he cut the gap to pole-sitter Jorge Lorenzo to just 1.075 seconds.

In China JT lagged by 1.635 seconds to Casey Stoner after day one, and reduced this to 1.115 seconds to pole qualifier Colin Edwards on the Saturday. So, considering that he is facing a new bike/new team/new category/new circuit situation, the guy is learning tracks quickly.

But he figures that he can do better still by calming it a bit on day one at Le Mans. Let's see this afternoon how far he is off the fastest lap of the day , and how close he can get to pole position in tomorrow's qualifying session.

Friday am - Wheelchair and Crutches as Lorenzo Laughs at the World

In no other sport in the world would you see what we witnessed last night in the Fiat Yamaha hospitality unit here at Le Mans. Jorge Lorenzo was wheeled to a table in a wheelchair. His battered right leg was swathed in a cast from the middle of his foot to just below his knee. He struggled from the wheelchair, to a pair of crutches, and finally to a seat at the table.

Lorenzo looked around at the journalists and TV cameras with his trademark nonchalant grin, as if to say, "What's the fuss?"

And when he is asked: "Aren't you risking your career to ride in that condition?" he responds: "It depends - if I keep on the bike I'm all right."

But what if he were to crash? The double 250cc world champion continues the game: "I hope not to crash," he says. "Normally I don't crash very much."

Cool act!!! We're used to riders struggling back onto their bikes and riding through the pain barrier. But what Lorenzo will attempt to do today when he mounts - or is lifted aboard - his Fiat Yamaha is something extraordinary, even by the mad-crazy standards of our mad-crazy sport.

Just 14 days after fracturing both ankles in practice for the Chinese grand prix, at a time when he has several years ahead of him to win the MotoGP championships that will surely come his way, he's going out onto the brake-squirt, brake-squirt Le Mans track to defend his second place in the points standing.

Lorenzo has often said that he admires the Spartans of ancient Greece, warriors who epitomised the word "stoic". Stoic is what this guy is - and then some.

"I feel happy because we can compete," Jorge continued in his press conference. "Sometimes I take painkillers at night if I turn over and it hurts me. I've been getting around in a wheelchair, but in the last two days I've started to use crutches."

He says that specialists have told him that he won't be fully fit until the Catalan grand prix on June 8, so he has to face this French round and the Italian GP at Mugello in a semi-crippled condition.

"In China it was painful for me," he said of his heroic ride into fourth place. "But here we hope to do the race without any limitations."

The Spartans fought at maybe 25mph in their chariots. Lorenzo will do it at 170mph this weekend.