MotoGP news

Gresini hoping for strong showing

The Honda Gresini team is looking to display a strong midfield showing as the new MotoGP season prepares to restart this weekend, beginning with the now annual night race in Qatar. The outfit finished sixth in last year's Teams' Championship, as Alex de Angelis and team-mate Toni Elias plan to be up to speed as soon as possible.

With less testing having taken place in the run-up to the 2009 campaign, the challenge could be just that bit more difficult for the two riders this year, although De Angelis is optimistic towards weekend number one. "I love Qatar as a circuit, it is one of my favourites," the Sanmarinese commented. "I just hope it is a little warmer than when we were there for the test, so that we can get more heat into the tyres, because this is the area we're struggling with the most."

Toni Elias is approaching the new season with caution, having made a return after a year away at the Alice Team. "We have struggled a little more than we expected in testing, but we know where the problems lie and it is good to be going back to a circuit where we already have lots of data," the Spaniard said. "I'm happy to be going racing with this team again, with Honda and on this fantastic bike. Ideally I'd like to be starting the season in better shape, but the truth is we have work to do in a short space of time when we get out to Qatar and we'll be pushing hard in every aspect to approach the race in the best possible way."

"We haven't had much time to work on the bike this winter, and it was a real shame that it started to rain after the 'qualifying' session at Jerez because we were planning to do a race simulation," De Angelis added. "It means we go out there with a few question marks, particularly regarding tyre wear over race distance, but even so I am confident and excited to be going racing again."

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