M2: Catalunyan GP: Gresini Racing race report

DISAPPOINTING FIFTH PLACE FOR ELIAS

Team Gresini rider Toni Elias picked up fifth place in the Grand Prix of Catalunya today, a result that was below his expectations for his home race. The Spaniard chased hard to lead the race over the early laps but gradually dropped off the pace as he struggled to hold his line mid-corner and conceded positions as a result. Elias remains on top of the Moto2 World Championship, however, as the season approaches the halfway stage. Vladimir Ivanov rode his best race so far, only just missing out on his first points.

Toni Elias (5th): "I am not happy to finish fifth in my home race, in fact I am very disappointed. Having said that we have picked up more points for the championship and we were lucky in that Iannone, who is a very serious rival for the title, was penalised and also because I almost crashed but saved it by a miracle. They are the positives we take from today but now we need to find out why we weren't fast here. To get a result like that today I had to risk a lot on the track and that's not good."

Vladimir Ivanov (18th): "I finished very close to the points positions today and I was in there for quite a long period of the race but unfortunately my pace dropped off and I slipped to 18th. I am disappointed because for a while I thought I was going to pick up my first points but now we'll try and do it in Germany at a circuit I know well."

Fausto Gresini: "The truth is that we haven't managed to improve our performance all weekend -- the pace we had was all we could do in the race and we suffered. We haven't been able to give Toni a bike that held its speed through the corners and that was the main problem. Toni could do nothing more than defend his position and try to bring some important points home. Now we need to analyse the situation if we want to win this championship and step things up otherwise things are going to get difficult for us very soon."

-source: gresini racing