DIFFICULT START FOR FORTUNA HONDA RIDERS
The first day of action in the penultimate round of the season
proved to be a difficult one for the Fortuna Honda riders
as the Grand Prix of Portugal got underway at Estoril.
A heavy fall at the start of the afternoon session left Marco
Melandri out of action and with plenty of set-up work still
to do tomorrow. The Team Gresini rider ran wide in turn 9
and crashed, suffering a contusion to his left knee and a
light trauma to his head. X-rays carried out immediately in
the Clinica Mobile ruled out a fracture but he was taken to
hospital for a CAT scan as a precaution.
Toni Elias also had a tough time despite the 9th time in
the morning. He also suffered the setback of a crash, in turn
one, and could only manage the eleventh fastest time although
he is confident of improving on that when the practice action
resumes tomorrow.
TONI ELIAS (11th, 1'39"217): "I'm
not happy with this first day. I was hoping to be much higher
up the order but the crash in the afternoon cost me a lot
of time. It was my mistake - I went to deep and lost the front.
I'm disappointed to be down in eleventh place because I like
this track and we were unlucky today. Anyway, I'm confident
that we can improve tomorrow and if everything goes to plan
we can make a major step forward."
MARCO MELANDRI (crash): "It's a shame
about the crash because we were doing a good job. I probably
went a bit too deep and ran onto the green painted strip on
the outside of the corner, It was a fast crash but it was
a hard one and I bashed the inside of my left knee. I'm ok
but I feel weak right now. The knee is really painful but
thankfully the X-rays haven't shown up any breaks."
LAP TIMES
1. C.Stoner (Aus/Honda) 1'38"218
2. N.Hayden (Usa/Honda) 1'38"268
3. K.Roberts (Usa/Honda) 1'38"337
11. T.Elias (Sp/Honda) 1'39"217
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