Spain GP (Jerez)
DIFFERING FORTUNES FOR ELIAS AND XAUS IN JEREZ
The 2005 World Championship got underway in Jerez on Sunday.
As happened the day before, the race was dominated by strong
winds that disrupted the first showdown of the new season.
The winds blew a lot of dirt on to the circuit and made some
corners as difficult as in rainy conditions according to the
riders. However, despite the conditions, all the excitement
came in the final lap of the race.
Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) claimed the fisrt victory of the
year and leads the standings.
The performance of the two FORTUNA YAMAHA riders was very
contrasting. Whilst Toni Elias managed to lap at around the
same pace as the riders at the head of the field for almost
all of the race and claim his first four points in the MotoGP
class, Ruben Xaus had a less successful day and did not end
up scoring any points.
Toni Elías finished as the third best Yamaha rider
in the race. The Spanish rider was delighted to have finsihed
the race given the difficult conditions on his debut. “I
am happy to have finished the race and, above all, with the
way the race developed for me. Now we must keep working hard,
keep on learning and continue to progress. Today I had the
chance to battle against some riders who are well-known to
all fans. Given that, I could not be more positive after my
first race. What’s more, I am especially satisfied with
the physical condition Ii finished the race in because I thought
it was going to be much harder at this level.” After
a good start Elias moved up to tenth place, but slipped back
into ‘no man’s land’ between Hoffman and
Capirossi, he was unable to push on but produced some consistent
laps to earn a good finsih.
Rubén Xaus did not have any luck in his first race
for Yamaha. On the final corner of the first lap he lost control
of the front wheel of his bike and went off, the incident
forced him to go back to his box for his team to make some
repairs to his bike. Xaus was then penalised for going too
fast in the pit-lane and was given a penalty for which he
had to go back into the pit-lane, ending his hopes of a good
finish. “It was a very difficult weekend. Despite planning
for the race calmly, I still have not found an explanation
for the first lap. I don’t know what happened on the
last corner, but I ended up falling. My team and all the fans
supported me well and deserved a better result than the one
I got. I hope during the season I will not have another weekend
like this. Now we just have to keep working and think about
the next race in Estoril.”
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