During the firsts laps it seemed like a new race for Team Alice's Toni Elias who started from the fourteenth position on the grid and maintained the tenth position until the fifth lap. But, just a bit later, the Catalan rider didn’t manage to maintain his good rhythm and lost four positions. At mid race, just like in China two weeks ago, with less fuel and therefore with a lighter bike, he found a rhythm which allowed him to finish in eleventh position even if the rain slowed him down during the last part of the race. His teammate, Sylvain Guintoli, wanted to do well for his own supporters, but the Frenchman didn’t manage to find the right rhythm at the beginning of the race. He lost too much time from the group pace and consequently lost the possibility to fight for better positions.
The next MotoGP World Championship round will be on June 1st, when the Mugello circuit will host the Alice Grand Prix of Italy.
Fabiano Sterlacchini – Technical Director“Our distance from the fastest riders is lower compared to the firsts races of the season. From China, we have improved and we must continue to work on increasing our race rhythm. Toni suffers a lot during the first part of the races. Here it seemed like he had found a good rhythm, in fact he registered his fastest lap in the third lap of the race, but then things didn’t go so well. The rain has surely complicated the situation. The weather has surely emphasized his problems more than it did to the problems of the other riders. Anyway, the race has led us to conquer the result we were expecting after the first two days of work.”
Toni Elias – Alice Team rider (11th in the race – 14th in MotoGP classification)“I started well, it seemed like it was a different race. After a few turns I was in a good position, but after a few laps I encountered the same problems that had slowed me down during the practice rounds. I gave it all I had, but this is probably our level at the moment. In addition, the rain slowed me down while I was recuperating, but it wasn’t going to be a sufficient result anyway. We want to do much more. Now we have to think about Mugello, a track that I really like and that should be more favourable to the characteristics of our bike.”
Sylvain Guintoli – Alice Team rider (13th in the race – 17th in MotoGP classification)“I am very disappointed. I didn’t have the right feeling with the bike and I couldn’t push to the maximum in the firsts laps. I risked to slipping in the first turns and I made a mistake going straight on a turn. I really don’t know what to say, today I didn’t manage to ride as I wanted to. I hope to do much better from the next race.”
