Qatari GP: Team Alice Friday notes

HARD WORK FOR ELIAS AND GUINTOLI IN QATAR

Intensive night of work for the Alice Team on the Losail International Circuit in Doha, Qatar. Riders Toni Elias and Sylvain Guintoli have continued the work begun last week, in the two days of winter testing at night on February 28th and 29th on the same track, trying to find the right set up of their bikes. The Spanish rider (Elias) has concluded with the sixteenth fastest lap time of the day, while the French (Guintoli) has ended in eighteenth position. Today's track temperatures were eighteenth degrees in the first session and fourteenth in the second hour of work. Tomorrow another hour of free practice before qualifying session which will decide the first starting grid of the MotoGP 2008 season.

Fabiano Sterlacchini -- Technical Director

"Hard day, we couldn't manage to obtain last week test lap times, while the others have registered similar times compared to the last winter test done here. We can't be satisfied. But from these two hours of work we have found out interesting things that will be really useful for Sunday night race. Maybe we had to push a bit more during the first session to conquer a better position, but it will be from tomorrow that classification will really count."

Toni Elias -- Alice Team Rider (16th best lap time in 1'57.311 -- Total laps 37)

"In the first free session we have worked a lot on the suspensions looking for the right balance of the bike. We concentrated to prepare both bikes to have them at the same level tomorrow. I still need to improve my feeling with the front part of the bike. We have to work hard to be in the best condition possible for tomorrow. In the second session things have improved a bit, but we are still not at the level we want."

Sylvain Guintoli -- Alice Team Rider (18th best lap time in 1'58.500 -- Total laps 35)

"It isn't what I was expecting from these first two hours of work. Unfortunately, we have found some problems with the front since the first lap, in fact, I stopped immediately in the garage to check out the situation. But this isn't all, always in the first session I lost some time to change leather, as the one I was wearing was too small and it was blocking the blood going through my forearm. But I can't find excuses, today I was really too slow. Now we have to analyze the data and improve tomorrow. For Sunday's race we should have found an interesting front tyre solution."

-credit: pda