Doha, Qatar, First MotoGP round
Day 1, Friday March 7th 2008
HARD WORK FOR ELIAS AND GUINTOLI IN QATAR
Intensive night of work for the Alice Team on the Losail
International Circuit in Doha, Qatar. Riders Toni Elias and
Sylvain Guintoli have continued the work begun last week,
in the two days of winter testing at night on February 28th
and 29th on the same track, trying to find the right set up
of their bikes. The Spanish rider (Elias) has concluded with
the sixteenth fastest lap time of the day, while the French
(Guintoli) has ended in eighteenth position. Today’s
track temperatures were eighteenth degrees in the first session
and fourteenth in the second hour of work. Tomorrow another
hour of free practice before qualifying session which will
decide the first starting grid of the MotoGP 2008 season.
Fabiano Sterlacchini – Technical Director
“Hard day, we couldn’t manage to obtain last
week test lap times, while the others have registered similar
times compared to the last winter test done here. We can’t
be satisfied. But from these two hours of work we have found
out interesting things that will be really useful for Sunday
night race. Maybe we had to push a bit more during the first
session to conquer a better position, but it will be from
tomorrow that classification will really count.”
Toni Elias – Alice Team Rider (16th best lap
time in 1’57.311 – Total laps 37)
“In the first free session we have worked a lot on
the suspensions looking for the right balance of the bike.
We concentrated to prepare both bikes to have them at the
same level tomorrow. I still need to improve my feeling with
the front part of the bike. We have to work hard to be in
the best condition possible for tomorrow. In the second session
things have improved a bit, but we are still not at the level
we want.”
Sylvain Guintoli – Alice Team Rider (18th best
lap time in 1’58.500 – Total laps 35)
“It isn’t what I was expecting from these first
two hours of work. Unfortunately, we have found some problems
with the front since the first lap, in fact, I stopped immediately
in the garage to check out the situation. But this isn’t
all, always in the first session I lost some time to change
leather, as the one I was wearing was too small and it was
blocking the blood going through my forearm. But I can’t
find excuses, today I was really too slow. Now we have to
analyze the data and improve tomorrow. For Sunday’s
race we should have found an interesting front tyre solution.”
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