M2: Czech GP: Gresini Racing qalifying report

FRONT ROW START FOR TONI ELIAS DESPITE MISSING FIRST DAY

Team Gresini rider Toni Elias took to the Brno circuit this morning determined to make up for lost time after being disqualified from yesterday's opening free practice by Race Direction because of a test conducted by the team at Misano on the 8th August. The Spaniard showed that he remains on top form with a string of fast laps this morning followed by a challenge for pole position in the afternoon that was only denied by a mistake on his final flying lap. However, his race pace is good and he is confident of making a strong challenge tomorrow.

Toni Elias (3rd 2' 03" 741): "I am happy because a front row start is very important. I could have maybe been on pole position but I made a mistake in the final corner of my fastest lap, which was a shame. It's not a problem though because we're on the front row and our race pace is good, hopefully I can get a good start now. It will be difficult for anybody to escape from the start because there are four or five of us with a very competitive pace. We'll see who's capable of maintaining their pace in the second half of the race."

Vladimir Ivanov (26th 2' 05" 517): "I've improved on yesterday but it wasn't enough. This morning I went a lot better but I wasn't able to quite break into the top twenty. Hopefully I can make that step up in quality tomorrow and get in the points again."

Fausto Gresini: "Things went well today. Elias is calm and confident that he can have a good race tomorrow. It was just a shame about the last lap because it could have been even better but he's on the front row and that's the most important thing. We need to start thinking about the championship now because there are still a lot of points available and we can't afford to make the kind of silly mistake that caused Elias to be disqualified from practice yesterday. Toni got straight on the pace this morning though, which helped to calm my nerves!"

-source: gresini racing