GP VALENCIA - QUALIFYING
MELANDRI HAPPY WITH RACE PACE DESPITE GRID POSITION
 Marco
Melandri heads into the final round of the 2007 MotoGP World
Championship hoping that his good race pace during practice
can help him to a top result at the Grand Prix of Valencia.
The Gresini Honda rider worked hard with his team to prepare
for the race but unfortunately he wasn't able to significantly
improve his best lap time on a qualifying tyre and dropped
to tenth place in the shootout for grid positions. Not for
the first time this season, Melandri is now hoping for a good
start as he aims to fight through the pack.
His team-mate Toni Elias also faces a major challenge as
he starts from the fifth row. Toni has struggled for grip
over the two days of practice but is still determined to fight
for a top result in front of his home fans.
MARCO MELANDRI (10th, 1'32.367): "We've
got a good race pace and we showed that on a long run on used
tyres today. Unfortunately the extra grip on a qualifying
tyre made the chattering worse and that prevented me from
setting a good lap time. I'm disappointed because to start
from the fourth row is a big handicap. It's difficult to get
the right side of the tyre warmed up at this circuit over
the first few laps but I think we can use this to our advantage
and cut down the gap to some of the riders at the front. It
will be important to get a good start and get past the riders
with a slower pace than me as early as possible in the race.
The podium is not impossible, it will be a long and demanding
race from a physical point of view because it's a tight and
twisty track. I feel ready for the final race of the year."
TONI ELIAS (14th, 1'32.790): "It has
been a tough weekend - we are struggling because we don't'
have enough traction and the feeling is even worse on a qualifying
tyre. We'll keep working with the team to find a solution
for tomorrow and we still haven't made a tyre choice for the
race, which will be crucial. I just hope we can come up with
something that allows me to be consistent over 30 long laps
in the race."
FAUSTO GRESINI: "The result in qualifying
does not reflect the true potential of our riders here. Marco
has got a good race pace but we didn't manage to match that
level of performance on a qualifying tyre. Toni suffered even
more but he's still highly motivated to put on a good show
at his home race."
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