Room for improvement for Gresini riders after second 2009 test

Room for improvement for Gresini riders after second 2009 test



Wednesday, 04 March 2009
It was a case of ‘steady as you go’ for the San Carlo Honda Gresini team in Qatar this week, with Toni Elias and Alex de Angelis gathering important data but still in need of fine tuning their respective RC212V packages before the start of the season.


New team-mates Alex de Angelis and Toni Elias brought this week’s test session in Qatar to a close in tenth and eleventh places respectively on the timesheet, both riders stating afterwards that they need to improve rear grip in order to improve their competitiveness.
After three nights of testing at the Losail International Circuit team boss Fausto Gresini summarised the workout, saying, “These have been three long sessions and the final classification ended up pretty closely matched.”
Taking the positives from the Middle Eastern visit, Gresini added, “Obviously tenth and eleventh positions do not appear to be particularly exciting, but if you consider that there were just three-tenths of a second separating us from fourth position, I think we can still have our say in this year’s championship. It will be a very competitive season, but we already knew that.”
Reviewing his test after finishing just inside the top ten De Angelis, stated, “I had some initial problems with rear chattering that we weren’t able to get to grips with, but on the whole I am quite satisfied with this test session. The bike is quick and now we need to work on achieving the full potential with our package at Jerez.”
Toni Elias, meanwhile, explained what he had focused on, revealing, “We continued to work on the bike’s geometry and suspension in order to improve my feeling with the rear. With my riding style, I have to concentrate my efforts mainly on the rear in order to get more contact with the asphalt, so I can get better traction.”