FIRST DAY OF WORK FOR THE ALICE TEAM RIDERS AT DONINGTON
PARK CIRCUIT
After a weekend of break, MotoGP is back in action for the
eight round of the 2008 World Championship at Donington Park
circuit, in England. Alice Team riders haven’t begun
in the best way, even if after the two days of test completed
last week in Barcelona, they have shown improvements. The
Spanish rider, Toni Elias, has also been unlucky today: in
the afternoon session he had to stop in the garage for some
minutes due to some technical problems. Back on track in the
last minutes of the second free practice, he made it to improve
his best morning lap time by almost a second, concluding the
day in fifteenth position. His teammate, Sylvain Guintoli,
didn’t make it to take a big step forward in the second
hour of work, concluding the day in eighteenth position.
Fabiano Sterlacchini – Technical director
“The situation is the same we found in the last test
in Barcelona: with high temperature we can be competitive,
but when we find “cold” tracks the problems we
have become even bigger, complicating our work of set up of
the bike. Today, in addition, we had a technical problem that
blocked us for a while in the afternoon. We are checking the
situation, but it seems like we lost some oil: probably a
stone hit the radiator making a small hole.”
Toni Elias – Alice Team rider (15th best lap
time in 1’30.268 – Total laps 45)
“The low temperatures didn’t allow us to be as
fast as we were during the test in Barcelona, when temperatures
were much higher. Despite this we have worked a lot constantly
improving our lap times. I can’t be satisfied by my
position at the moment, but if tomorrow we will find the same
weather conditions I believe I can improve a lot and conquer
a good position on the starting grid.”
Sylvain Guintoli – Alice Team rider (18th best
lap time in 1'30.931 – Total laps 45)
“We have found a good base to start with in the morning,
but then things didn’t go as we expected. I have the
most difficulties in the fast turns when I have to change
direction of the bike. We have to find the right balance of
the bike to allow me to be much more agile. Unluckily this
is a completely different circuit compared to the last two
where we have raced, Mugello and Montmelò, and therefore
we have to work intensively to adapt the bike to this track.”
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