Elías improvement expected for return to bogey track

A twenty-three point return from five races was almost certainly not what either Toni Elías and Fausto Gresini had in mind when they struck a deal for the Spaniard’s return to Honda, and disappointment has been evident in quotes from the last pair of MotoGP rounds. Elías’ best result of the year is a ninth place, with a factory-spec RC212V that had been expected to bring him higher placings.

Gresini has said that the team had ‘hit rock bottom’ at the last race in Mugello, but expects 25 year-old Elías to bring the smiles back to San Carlo Honda Gresini at his home round this weekend.

“I was very unhappy after the last race at Mugello but like I said at the time I felt we hit rock bottom there so it is onwards and upwards from here,” says Elías’ team manager. “There can be no better time or place to do that than this weekend at Catalunya, in Toni’s home race, where he will benefit from a lot of local support as always.”

“His result in Italy was doubly disappointing because he had made progress during practice and we had high hopes of a top result. Now we will be looking to pick the positives out of the weekend, eliminate the negatives and turn potential into points.”

Despite his optimism, Elías traditionally has one of his worst races of the year at Barcelona. He has completed just 31 laps of the track in a race situation since his arrival in the premier class back in 2005, and has never reached the chequered flag.