Toni Elias, Alice Team rider, has made it to improve his best lap time concluding the qualifying practice in thirteenth position. Surely not a satisfying performance for the home rider, but good for his morale after the problems encountered in the first day of work. After three hours of free practice the Team has put together the information gained and allowed the rider to improve his best lap time by almost two seconds. His teammate, Sylvain Guintoli has started well the day positioning in twelfth position, only a second behind the fastest, in the morning’s free practice. In the afternoon, unluckily, things didn’t go as well and the French rider had to be happy with fifteenth position. The Alice Team rider will start in fifth row with Kawasaki rider John Hopkins.
Fabiano Sterlacchini – Technical Director
“We have lived an intense qualifying session. We have done what possible to give the most competitive bike to Toni. The objective was to enter the top ten and we didn’t make it for only a few tenths of a second. For tomorrow’s race, if we will have similar temperature as today, we probably already found the tyres solutions, while we still need to make some adjustments to the set up of the bike.”
Toni Elias – Alice Team rider (13th best lap time in 1’42.808 – Total laps 24)
“At the end of the day, for how I felt yesterday, I can consider my self satisfied. Surely thirteenth position isn’t my objective, but in the situation I was it can be ok. We are not so far from the top ten. The race rhythm is not so bad and I will do all possible to start well and reach the fastest group and fight with them from the first laps. It will surely not be easy, but we will give our best as usual.”
Sylvain Guintoli – Alice Team rider (15th best lap time in 1’43.204 – Total laps 25)
“This afternoon we didn’t obtain the results we were expecting. In this morning free practice we had a good race pace only a second slower than the fastest. Unfortunately I can’t use in the best way the qualifying session: I tried to push at the maximum, but at I can’t make it to reach the lap time I would want. Tomorrow in the warm up we will do the last modification on the bike to be at the best for the race.”
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