TONI ELÍAS Y RUBEN XAUS WILL START THE RACE FROM
EIGHTH AND SIXTEENTH RESPECTIVELY
 The
Fortuna Yamaha riders Toni Elias and Ruben Xaus ended the
second qualifying session with divergent fortunes. On the
one hand Elias continued his progression in the class with
a superb performance throughout the day which saw him take
eighth place on the grid. His team-mate Ruben Xaus, after
various technical problems, had to settle for 16th position.
Toni Elias
8th - 2.01.081, 1.371 behind pole
“I am very satisfied. This Yamaha is very demanding
but I am getting more comfortable on it all the time. I remember
that in one of my years in 250 I won six races, but that bike
had many problems and I had to work very hard, but this Yamaha
is in no way inferior. I believe in Estoril things were made
more difficult by my falls, but here things have gone much
better and we are getting closer all the time. However, everyone
is so close here and so good that you could just as easily
finish 8th as 14th.”
Ruben Xaus
16th, 2.02.869, 3.159 behind pole
“I have had better days, but I’m not downhearted.
I am giving 100 percent and things are proving more difficult
than I expected. I am not comfortable and am having to do
a lot of work on the bike to keep up. I am not looking for
excuses because there are none, but we are looking at different
options to find the jump in quality that we need. They are
only small things, but are important if we are to improve
– above all in coming out of corners.”
Antonio Jimenez (Chief mechanic for Toni Elias)
“When it was dry in the morning we clocked the sixth
best time and the bike was working perfectly for Toni. In
the afternoon we continued to work hard in difficult conditions
and our strategy paid off which allowed Toni to make the difference.
He is learning very quickly and the results are coming. However,
this was only a qualifying session, we’ll have to see
how the race goes tomorrow.”
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