Elias feeling at home with Gresini
Added on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor
Elias feeling at home with Gresini
Toni Elias is looking to banish the disaster that was 2008 this weekend after rejoining the Gresini Honda team for the 2009 season.
Elias, who rode with Gresini Honda in 2006 and 2007, struggled to get to get to grips with the notoriously difficult Ducati last year in a season with yielded just two podium finishes and 92 championship points.
That prompted the Spaniard to rejoin the Gresini Honda team for 2009 and to sweeten the deal, a factory-spec RC212V has been thrown in as Honda look to extract more data from their satellite entrants.
After Shinya Nakano ran with a factory-spec Honda whilst with Gresini last season, Elias will be working more closely with HRC bosses as they look to close the gap on Yamaha and Ducati.
Speaking ahead of this season’s opener in Qatar, Elias said: “We have struggled a little more than we expected in testing but we know where the problems lie and it is good to be going back to a circuit where we already have lots of data.
“I’m happy to be going racing with this team again, with Honda and on this fantastic bike. Ideally I’d like to be starting the season in better shape but the truth is we have work to do in a short space of time when we get out to Qatar and we’ll be pushing hard in every aspect to approach the race in the best possible way.
Elias is also hoping that his good record at the circuit will stand him in good stead under the lights of Losail.
“Racing at night makes it a bit tricky but Losail is one of my favourite circuits and I’ve started on the front row there twice before – both times with this team. I remember in particular three years ago we were three seconds off the pace on the first day and still managed to qualify on the front row. That just shows how quickly things can change in racing so we’ll go there with optimism, fight hard and see what happens.”
