Shanghai, China, Fourth MotoGP Round
Qualifying, Saturday May 3rd 2008
 FIFTH
AND SIXTH ROW FOR THE ALICE TEAM PAIR
Alice Team rider, Toni Elias, didn’t make it to maintain
the same position obtained in the first day of work in Shanghai,
where he concluded in eleventh position, finishing today’s
qualifying session in fifteenth position. The Spaniard was
in eight position after half session, but couldn’t make
it to use in the best way Bridgestone qualifying tyres. Sylvain
Guintoli, seated in the other side of the Alice Team box,
has improved his lap times registered during the firsts three
free sessions, but it wasn’t enough to conquer a good
position in the starting grid. Today’s temperatures
were similar to the first day of work on the Shanghai circuit,
with the asphalt temperature that reached 48 degrees. Weathermen
are promising rain for tomorrow, with more than 80% of possibilities
for a wet race.
Fabiano Sterlacchini – Technical Director
“Maybe we wanted too much today. We had found a good
compromize that allowed us to have a good race set up, but
for the qualifying session maybe we changed too much ruining
our lap times. Anyway the race rhythm has improved compared
to the previous races. The distance from the firsts is sensibly
lower even if we still have a lot of work to do. If the track
will be dry tomorrow, I believe Toni can do well.”
Toni Elias – Alice Team Rider (15th best lap
time in 1’59.933 – Total laps 20)
“I am not happy with fifteenth position, but I know
that I have good race rhythm, surely with a lower distance
to the fastest riders, not like in the firsts three races.
It will be very important to start well, if I’ll do
so we can obtain a good result. This weekend we are surely
enjoying racing much more, but we still have to improve to
climb the classification.”
Sylvain Guintoli – Alice Team Rider (17th best
lap time in 2’00.760 – Total laps 19)
“What to say, sincerely I expected much more. We started
well in the afternoon, but when I tried to push the bike hard
to improve, things don’t go as expected. It isn’t
an easy situation, but the only solution we have is to work
more and more. Tomorrow, it seems that it will be raining.
I can’t hide this could be a small advantage for me
right now, as I enjoy racing with wet track, but I also want
to be competitive with dry track conditions.”
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