Turkish GP: Gresini Honda Saturday notes

ELIAS AND MELANDRI READY TO CHARGE

The Grand Prix of Turkey promises to be a real challenge for the Team Honda Gresini riders as they start from the fourth and fifth rows of the grid.

After finding a good race pace during practice Toni Elias is counting on making a good start and making full use of the hard braking zones at the Turkish track to make up positions. The Spaniard was in spectacular form today as he lit up the circuit with a series of his trademark slides.

Marco Melandri finds himself in exactly the same position as last year, when he charged from 14th on the grid to take victory in Istanbul for the second successive season. The team is working hard to make sure Marco can find the right set-up during tomorrow's warm-up and launch another fightback in the race.

TONI ELIAS (10th,1'53"835): "Tenth place is a real handicap for the race but I'll just try and get a good start, stay calm and make up as many positions as I can. I'm quite happy because I set a good pace and this is the important thing. I'll try and make the most of the hard-braking areas to pass people and I'm confident I can do it. The team is working well and we have a clear idea about tyre choice. I'm just disappointed I couldn't make better use of the qualifying tyre."

MARCO MELANDRI (14th, 1'54"082): "It's been a difficult day because I haven't managed to find the right feeling with the bike. I'm not confident enough to push hard and get the best out of the bike. We've done a lot of laps and the tyres are holding out well but we tried a few different solutions with the bike set-up and didn't find the improvement we need. The team is working really well though and in the warm up we'll try going back to the set-up we had on Friday before the two crashes."

FAUSTO GRESINI: "Marco is having a tough time but the team will do their best to support him and find the right set-up. We know that this is not a reflection of his true potential."

-credit: gr