Elías advertises talents with Czech podium

Toni Elías knows he will not be staying with the same team in 2010, following the news that Marco Melandri will be joining the Honda Gresini team with Marco Simoncelli at the end of this year, but the on-track results from the Czech Republic at round eleven have done Elías no harm.

Repeating his 2008 Brno podium was a crucial result for Elías as he looks to find a new ride for the forthcoming season and he told motogp.com after the race, “I’m in a difficult situation because I don’t have a team and I don’t have a bike. I think this result could help but I don’t think anyone really wants me, so what can I do? I have to just concentrate on the next few races, like Indianapolis and Misano, which could be good for us also. We are talking with some teams, but at the moment there are not so many options.”

He added, “This podium could change things, so I hope that the teams who haven’t finalised their plans for next year think about me a little bit more.”

Reviewing the weekend in the Czech Republic and the race itself he stated, “I’m happy because recently I have been getting closer to the top riders, but problems or crashes meant I wasn’t getting the final rewards. But we have kept pushing and finally it has arrived. We worked well this weekend.”

“It was hard in the race because I was alone and then Andrea Dovizioso came up close behind me and was pushing a lot. Then Jorge Lorenzo crashed and that gave us an extra position, the final prize is a podium and we are really happy with that.”