Gauloises Ceske Rep. GP
First day / XAUS AND ELIAS BACK AT ‘THE OFFICE’
The Czech Republic Grand Prix, the eleventh round of the
MotoGP World Championship, signals the start of the final
stretch of the season with seven races scheduled to take place
in less than two months. The Brno circuit, the third longest
on the calendar behind Assen and Sepang, is one of MotoGP’s
classic venues and is held in high esteem by the riders because
of its characteristics and excellent safety features. TONI
ELIAS finished fifth in the 250cc race the last time the series
visited this racetrack having qualified seventh on the starting
grid. RUBEN XAUS, meanwhile, was unable to finish the race
due to a crash despite having started from tenth on the grid
in the MotoGP class. The first day of qualifying for this
year’s Czech Republic Grand Prix ended with similar
times across the board in MotoGP, with the top fourteen riders
on the time sheets lapping within less than a second of each
other. Elías formed a part of that group until the
final lap of the session, when Valentino Rossi dipped under
lap record pace. Until that point, the Manresa youngster had
been just nine tenths short of the fastest rider, Loris Capirossi.
TONI ELIAS (24):
Free Practice-1: 13º-2.01.272 + 1.646 (20/23 laps)
Free Practice-2: 15º-2.00.286 + 1.008 (23/24 laps)
“I am quite satisfied. In Germany we introduced a pretty
radical change to the set-up that worked quite well and here
we’ve followed along the same lines. In the morning
we made progress and in the afternoon we continued to improve
the lap times so hopefully we can carry on in the same way
tomorrow. I think this is the way we have to work. Personally
I like this circuit quite a lot and I hope the whole weekend
is as favourable for us as this first day has been.”
RUBEN XAUS (11):
Free Practice -1: 19º-2.03.562 a 3.936 (12/19 laps)
Free Practice -2: 20º-2.02.716 a 3.438 (17/21 laps)
“Brno is a bit of an unknown quantity for me. I have
only raced twice on this track before and it is very technical,
more suited to 250cc riders who carry a lot of corner speed
as opposed to my style of riding. I am a very aggressive rider
and I like to get hard on the brakes, pick the bike up and
get out. For that you need a bike with a lot of power and
I’ve found it quite tough today because you need to
be quick through the corner. Without that you don’t
get very far.”
HERVE PONCHARAL, FORTUNA YAMAHA Team Director:
“The break has been good for everybody – especially
Toni because he’s worked very hard to get over his physical
problems. Today he improved his times virtually every time
he went out on to the track, which represents a good start
to the weekend for us. It’s been a bit more difficult
for Ruben and he obviously doesn’t have the pace he
would like at the moment”.
BEST TIME OF THE DAY: V.Rossi, 1.59.278
CIRCUIT RECORD: A.Barros, 1.59.302 (2.004)
|
