Crash costs Elías precious positions

The Gran Premio d’Italia Alice, home event for the San Carlo Honda Gresini team, will see Toni Elías start from ninth on the grid after a costly qualifying crash, whilst his colleague Alex de Angelis will start on the row behind him on the grid.

Toni Elías - 9th

“Overall I’m happy because we’ve improved the bike a lot here, we’re on the right lines and my pace is good. I’m also pleased because on the lap I set my qualifying time on this afternoon I was riding alone, whereas this morning I set my best time following Jorge Lorenzo. The crash was a shame because I was following Valentino Rossi and through the first split we were close to the pole time. I felt like it was going to be a great lap. The problem is that when you know things are improving and you feel good, you can get a little excited. That’s what happened to me and I was too aggressive with the bike, which caused the crash. Anyway, the good thing is that despite the crash my next best time was still good enough for ninth on the grid and if I can get a good start tomorrow I think we can have a great race. I’ll be aggressive in the race too but not too much.”

Alex de Angelis - 12th

“I don’t think we could have gone much faster than that but the gap to the riders just ahead of me is quite small so it’s a shame we couldn’t just manage a little more. Anyway, we’ve got a good chance for tomorrow because my pace on race tyres is good enough for a top ten finish, which would be really important to us. The races are always tough here because of the heat and the physical nature of the track but also because the riders push to the limit from the first lap to the last. There really is no respite and it looks like it’s going to be a close one tomorrow. As always I’m ready to fight and do my best but the important thing is to finish the race with a good result for the team in their home Grand Prix.”