FORTUNA HONDA COMPLETE SECOND DAY OF OFFICIAL TESTS
FORTUNA HONDA riders Marco Melandri and Toni Elías
completed their second day of official testing duties at the
Circuit de Catalunya in cold weather conditions today. The
two riders worked hard throughout the day although at the
end they were forced to settle for twelfth and seventeenth
position respectively. Marco was able to complete the programme
he had for today although we was unable to reach the desired
results. The Italian, who produced a stunning run of results
at the end of last season to seal second place in the championship,
knocked a fraction of a second off his time from yesterday
but that was not enough to leave him satisfied at the end
of the day. His team-mate Toni Elías, who is riding
a MotoGP bike for the first time at this track, was unable
to improve on the 1’44.672 he clocked yesterday. Tomorrow
the riders will have the opportunity to demonstrate their
potential in front of thousands of spectators, who will flock
to the track to enjoy the timed BMW Award session which runs
from 14:05 until 14:45.
MARCO MELANDRI (76 laps, 1’44.512) 12th fastest:
“They’ve been two very tough days for us but
we’ve still got a long way to go. I’m struggling
to find the ideal feeling to enter the corners comfortably
and I still need to improve my corner speed and line. Fortunately
we’ve still got four days of tests left before the first
race at Jerez. I’m disappointed we are not at the level
we would like to be at but I think I can still look forward
to this season with optimism.”
TONI ELIAS ( 70 laps, 1’45.782 ) 17th fastest
“Yesterday we saw one side of the coin and today we
saw the other. This wasn’t a great day for us even though
we worked really hard to make it that way. We had a few grip
problems and the track temperature didn’t help much
either. We can’t use that as an excuse though because
it was the same track for everybody. We tried a few different
tyres without finding the ideal one but I’m sure we
will find it through hard work. I actually felt more comfortable
on the bike yesterday.”
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