Elías makes a return to winning ways with Gresini

Toni Elías tasted victory in the World Championship for the first time in three-and-a-half years on Sunday, when he took all 25 points in the Moto2 race at the Gran Premio bwin de España at Jerez in front of his home crowd.

The Gresini Racing Moto2 rider, whose last win came towards the end of the 2006 season in the premier class at Estoril with the Gresini MotoGP set-up, was elated to have seen all the hard work put in by both the team and himself come to fruition in round two of the 2010 campaign.

"I am absolutely delighted to have won at Jerez, at my home race in Spain. It is a great satisfaction for me, and I think also for my team and for Fausto Gresini. We worked very well on Saturday to find a good set-up that would enable us to at least be in the leading group, and I’m happy with how that went.”

“We didn’t have the set-up to win in qualifying, nor to be part of the front pack, but this morning (in the warm-up) we tried out a few solutions that proved to be crucial in the race. It was still difficult, but we took a risk and we won.”

Enjoying the return to winnings ways with the team, Elías added: “I am very happy to have given the victory to Team Gresini, after all that we achieved together in MotoGP, particularly Estoril 2006. We have had a difficult last month, and I personally needed this success.”

Jerez was the 11th GP win of Elías’ career, meaning he has now won races in each of the MotoGP, Moto2, 125cc and old 250cc classes.