Doha, Qatar, MotoGP First Round
Race, Sunday March 9th 2008
FIRST RACE AND FIRSTS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS FOR
THE ALICE TEAM
Alice Team Riders, Toni Elias and Sylvain Guintoli, have
conquered the firsts world championship points in the first
race of the MotoGP season on the Losail International circuit
in Qatar. The first World Championship historical nocturnal
race, hasn’t be so lucky for the French-Hispanic duo,
as both riders found some complications during the race. The
Spanish rider (Elias) has meet some difficulties straight
away since the first laps he was going slower compared to
the time registered during warm up. Only in the last few laps
Elias has found a good rhythm concluding in fourteenth position.
Guintoli, on the other side, has started decently, but lost
the rhythm from the tenth lap. The rider, at the second year
in MotoGP, has concluded in fifteenth position. Next round
at the Jerez de la Frontera Grand Prix in three weeks time,
on March 30th, for the first European MotoGP World Championship
round of the season.
Fabiano Sterlacchini – Technical Director
“I still have a bit of sour taste in my mouth because
we could have surely done better. Now we have to analyze the
data because Toni was telling us about a problem with the
front part of the bike. We had this problem for the all weekend,
but we didn’t expect to compromises so much our performances.
This morning, in the warm up, we had a rhythm of eight tenths
of a second per lap faster and, seen the race lap times, we
could have fought for much better positions.”
Toni Elias – Alice Team Rider (14th position
– 14th in the MotoGP Classification)
“It’s not a positive result, I am not happy,
it has been a difficult race. I found many problems with the
front, but we still don’t know what happened. We have
to check the data to understand the reasons why we were going
almost a second per lap slower compare to the warm up. This
morning’s rhythm could have allowed us to enter the
top ten, but since the third lap things weren’t going
as we expected. We only have to work hard. The Team is doing
its work and soon better results will come.”
Sylvain Guintoli – Alice Team Rider (15th position
– 15th in the MotoGP Classification)
“In the fast corners I couldn’t push to the limit
and the bad cold I have made me sweat a lot and now I feel
without energies left. The front part of the bike has worked
really well during the all race, while I lost a bit of grip
with the rear in the last laps. Sincerely this weekend lap
times have been the same of the race, therefore we couldn’t
expected much more. We have to concentrate for the next weekend
of racing and improve the setting of the bike to fight for
better positions.”
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