Hard day for the Alice Team on the Montmelò circuit in the seventh MotoGP round. Toni Elias and Sylvain Guintoli, who started respectively from thirteenth and fifteenth position, had found themselves in the last two positions after the first lap. After eight laps the Spanish rider, who was concentrated in the fight with Melandri, West and his team-mate, has seen the pit-board with the penalty for jump start too late, shown at lap five, and during the ride through he had to stop at the end of the pit lane as he was disqualified.
A mistake for the home rider who wanted to do well in front of his own crowd. Also Guintoli hasn’t been so lucky. He lost a lot of time at lap four when he went off track and when he reached West and Melandri, the rear tyre lost a bit of grip not allowing him to overtake them. Tomorrow and Tuesday the Alice Team will participate at the test on the Circuit in Barcelona to prepare for the next Grand Prix scheduled on June 22nd in Donington.
Sergio Verbena – Sylvain Guintoli track engineer “Seen the race rhythm we had in yesterday’s practices I expected a little bit more. We can say that without the off track I had, where I lost about six seconds, we could have concluded at least a couple of positions ahead. But these are the races and you pay every single mistake. We will use tomorrow and Tuesday’s test to try different tyres solutions. We believe we can do better from the next round.”
Sylvain Guintoli – Alice Team rider (13th in the race – In MotoGP Classification 17th)“I am surely not happy on how the race went today. I started really bad, not like the last times, founding my self last after the first lap. Then, trying to overtake Toni, I went off track and I lost a lot of time. I did all I could to catch West and Melandri, but when I reached them, probably because I pushed a lot, my rear tyre didn’t have the same grip in the last two laps. I hope to do well tomorrow and Tuesday to conquer a better position in Donington.”
Toni Elias – Pilota Alice Team (Disqualified – In MotoGP Classification 15th)“I don’t have any words. I am sorry for the Team and for my fans that have been really good with me in these days. Just a few seconds before the start I went just a bit forward but I didn’t think it was so relevant. In the first laps I was fighting with Marco (Melandri), West and Guintoli and I was too concentrated on the race. When I have seen the pit-board with the penalty sign was too late. Now we have to concentrate in these two days of testing to find some valid solution that will allow us to be competitive in the next race.”
