James Toseland fought a ferocious battle to score his fourth sixth position of the season in the Grand Prix of Catalunya in Barcelona at the weekend.

An early tangle with Valentino Rossi pushed the Tech 3 Yamaha rider wide but he came back and pipped Australian Chris Vermeulen to sixth place on the line.

"I had a difficult few opening laps while I settled into a rhythm with the new settings on the bike," said Toseland, who moved into seventh place in the Moto GP Championship.

"Valentino passed me and then I got pushed back a bit further before I managed to pull things back.

It's hard work at these tracks that I don't know so I'm really pleased to have qualified for and then finished the race in sixth position.

I'm looking forward to getting to Donington now to see what I can do at a track that I'm familiar with."

The race was won by Spain's Dani Pedrosa to the delight of the home crowd and closed the gap on championship rival Valentino Rossi to seven points in the process.

The Italian finished second, ahead of current World Champion Casey Stoner.