Elías closes a terrible weekend at Misano

Toni feels he has lost the weekend by not making any progress with his Honda at the Misano track, but the Catalan will not give up and will give his all in the remaining races.

By Alejandro Batán6 September 2011 · 2 min read

Toni Elías finished 15th in the San Marino race of the MotoGP World Championship, despite the threat of rain that worried riders and teams of the 800cc bikes at the start of the 28-lap race.

Elías, aboard the RCV number 24, is not happy with the position achieved in qualifying for the race, at a track where he has stood on the MotoGP podium and won in Moto2. He enjoyed the first part of the race, riding at 1:36. Afterwards, Elías was unable to match the pace of his rivals due to the same problems that have plagued the weekend. He has constantly had bouncing issues at the front and grip problems at the rear; in short, it felt more like riding a merry-go-round than a motorcycle.

This is how Toni explains it:

Toni Elías (#24) (15th)

We tried some small adjustments in the morning, but we couldn’t achieve any benefit, so we went back to the previous setting. I managed to do laps in a low 1:36 for a few laps, but later the other riders were lapping in 1:35 and it was impossible for me to keep up with their pace.

This weekend we haven’t made any progress, and it is very frustrating for me and the team. We will try some new things at Aragón.

This weekend has been special for me and other riders because a year ago we lost a dear friend and a very talented rider: my thoughts are with Shoya’s family.