Sylvain Guintoli, Alice Team rider, has declared yesterday: “Tomorrow I want and I can obtain the best result of the season so far”, and so he has done. Surely the French rider isn’t fully satisfied by the eleventh position obtained today, but he consider it a good starting point for the intense work of the next two months, with five races in seven weeks. His race has started with difficulties as he was touched by another rider and lost four positions in the second turn of the race, but after a few laps Sylvain found again the good rhythm registered in the warm up finishing just one position from the top ten.
Another story for his team-mate, Toni Elias, who after the improvements seen in China doesn’t find back the right confidence to push at the maximum his Ducati Desmosedici GP8 SAT. Elias, who has finished in twelfth position, will try to improve in his home race, in Barcelona, in just 7 days. Thanks to the nine points conquered today, the Alice Team overtake the Kawasaki Racing Team in the MotoGP Team classification, positioning in eight place.
Sergio Verbena – Sylvain Guintoli’s Track Engineer
“Sylvain has been showing light improvements with his Ducati through the all weekend. This morning during warm up he has been really regular with an interesting rhythm. It seems the race started well, but after a few turns he was touched by another rider losing four positions. He also lost some seconds in the fight with his team-mate, Toni Elias, who is really good in the braking and not easy to overtake. Without these two episodes he could have fought with Chris Vermeulen to enter the top ten. We can’t be satisfied, but this results give us hopes for the rest of the season.”
Sylvain Guintoli – Alice Team rider (11th in the race – 17th in the MotoGP Classification)
“This morning in the warm up, thanks to the hard work of my Team, we have found a good set up of the bike to use during the race. I was confident and my start is the proof. I overtook many riders in the first turn positioning well. Then, in the second turn, someone has touched me making me lose four positions. This episode has condition me for some laps because I thought there could be something wrong with my bike, but after about a third of the race things were back to normality and I found again this morning’s rhythm. This allowed me to recover various positions overtaking in the last few laps my team-mate, Toni Elias, and Nicky Hayden. I am not excited about this race, but is surely a positive performance for my Team’s morale. Moreover is the first time I finish in front of my team-mate and I think this is positive to grow together in the next races.”
Toni Elias – Alice Team rider (12th in the race – 15th in the MotoGP Classification)
“I don’t have many words today, I simply never been in the race. This morning, in the last laps of the warm up, I thought I found a good technical solution, but in the race it didn’t work as good. It is a negative day for us. With the Team members, who I work really good with, we will try to study the situation to improve on my home circuit, in Barcelona, in 7 days.”
