Surely a proof of character for Toni Elias who, starting from the last position in the British Grand Prix, gritted his teeth giving all he had from the first to the last turn. At the end of the first lap the Spanish rider had already gained two positions on Hopkins and Toseland who unluckily slipped in the first turn. Constancy allowed the Alice Team rider to improve lap after lap registering his best lap time in the 21st lap when he was in twelfth position. In the last lap, after a battle which lasted seven laps, the Catalan rider made the last overtake which put him in eleventh position which means five world championship points. Elias, now, is in fourteenth position in the World Classification with 29 points, together with Marco Melandri. His teammate Sylvain Guintoli, after the good start that saw him in eleventh position for the first six laps, has concluded in thirteenth position. The French rider is now in seventeenth position in the 2008 MotoGP cla ssification.
Fabiano Sterlacchini – Technical Director
“With all the difficulties we found this weekend, weather conditions included, the eleventh position gives us good hopes. To start from the last position is never easy, mostly mentally, but Toni has always demonstrated his strong and determined character during his career. We knew that with this track conditions, much more similar to the last Barcelona test, we were more competitive. Next weekend in Assen we will try other solutions tried during the test to improve even more.”
Toni Elias – Alice Team rider (11th in the race – 14th in the MotoGP Classification)
“Let’s put it this way, I am happy for all we have done today. With my Team we have worked intensively to find the best solution possible. I would say that we have done a good job. Naturally the eleventh place doesn’t make me happy, but for how it went yesterday I can consider myself satisfied. I am an aggressive rider and I like to overtake, but I would like to be able to fight also for better positions. In four days we will back on track and I hope to continue in this direction.”
Sylvain Guintoli – Alice Team rider (13th in the race – 17th in the MotoGP Classification)
“I started well and I remained in eleventh position for many laps. I didn’t push too hard in the first half of the race because today we tried a new front tyre that I never used before and we have done many modifications in the front part of the bike. After ten laps I found a good rhythm on 1’30. I made it to maintain it until the end, but even if it was a rhythm much better compare to my lap time registered on Friday, I didn’t make it to step up in the classification.”
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