San Carlo Honda Gresini team riders Toni Elias and Alex De Angelis brought this week’s test session in Qatar to a close last night after a useful three days of testing at the Losail track.? Thanks to ever-improving track conditions on the final day, the riders were able to work in similar conditions to what will be faced on 12 April, when the 2009 World Championship race will take place.
??De Angelis and Elias both worked on bike set-up and tyres in a bid to find the best compromise between the bike and the Bridgestone rubber. Alex completed 61 laps in total with a best time of 1:57.591, while his team-mate Toni completed 66 laps with a best time of 1:57.804?.
?
Alex De Angelis, 10th position – 1:57.591, 61 laps:
?“Today the track conditions were much better. We continued to work on tyres to find the best compromise between them and the bike. I had some initial problems with rear chattering that were able to get to grips with, but on the whole I am quite satisfied with this test session, the bike is quick and we must work on extracting the full potential from the RC212V.”?
?Toni Elias 11th position &ndas h; 1:57.804, 66 laps:
?“We continued to work on the bike geometry and suspensions in order to improve my feeling with the rear. With my riding style, I have to focus my efforts mainly on the rear in order to get more contact with the asphalt, basically to get better traction. This would allow me to get the most out of my factory-spec RC212V.”?
?Fausto Gresini – Team Owner:
?“These have been three long test nights and the end classification has ended up closely matched. For sure t he 10th and 11th positions of Alex and Toni do not appear to be particularly exciting, but if we consider that fact that there are just three-tenths-of-a-second separating us from fourth position, I think we can still have our say in this year’s championship. It will be a very competitive season, but we already knew that it would be.” ??
Both riders will return to track action once again at the end of this month (28 and 29 March to be exact) at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain for the final pre-season test session.
??Classification??
1. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1’55.744 ?
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1’56.733 ?
3. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’56.972 ?
4. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) 1’57.224?
5. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1’57.225
?6. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 1’57.253 ?
7. Randy De Puniet (Honda) 1’57.401
?8. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1’57.449 ?
9. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1’57.515 ?
10. Alex De Angelis (Honda) 1’57.591?
11. Toni Elias (Honda) 1’57..804 ?12. Mika Kallio (Ducati) 1’57.938
?13. Niccolò Canepa (Ducati) 1'57.946 ?
14. Yuki Takahashi (Honda) 1’58.412 ?
15. James Toseland (Yamaha) 1’58.786?
16. Marco Melandri (Hayate) 1’58.851
