Since yesterday’s qualifying session we could have understood that this would have been a difficult race for the Alice Team riders. Started from 14th and 15th position, Toni Elias and Sylvain Guintoli have concluded the first lap in 15th and 17th place with the French rider in front of the Spaniard. Elias has therefore tired to comeback but during the seventh lap he went off track and when back on track he found himself in last position with many seconds of disadvantages from De Angelis who was the first rider in front of him. Toni didn’t anyway give up, reaching and overtaking the Italian concluding in seventeenth position. Guintoli has finished in fourteenth position conquering two points for the world championship. Next appointment in Australia in seven days for the sixteenth MotoGP round of the season.
Fabiano Sterlacchini – Alice Team Technical Director
“To start so far back is never easy. Then, after that Toni went long in a turn the situation got even more complicated. Also to find the right motivation was difficult to continue but Toni reacted well and kept a good rhythm that allowed him to gain a position. If he wouldn’t go off track he could have surely concluded in the top ten. We hope to do much better in Australia in seven days with both riders.”
Toni Elias – Alice Team Rider (16th in the race – 12th in the MotoGP classification)
“It has been a difficult weekend for me: I am ill and today it wasn’t easy to race. In addition I went off track in the seventh lap due to some problems and to comeback it wasn’t an easy job. I really lost too much time and therefore I decided to take this race like a long run in a free practice maintaining a really good rhythm. Now I hope to feel much better physically soon to be in the best conditions in Australia.”
Sylvain Guintoli – Alice Team Rider (14th in the race – 13th in the MotoGP classification)
“Until Saturday morning things were going in the right direction, then in the qualifying and today everything has changed. I don’t know what has happened but I really didn’t make it to find the right confidence to push at the maximum. I didn’t have much confidence with the front tyre and I was losing too much time during the turns. Now I have to check the data with my technicians to sensibly improve for the next round in Phillip Island.”
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