Toni Elias suffers poor qualifying at Indy, starts 22nd

Despite Toni Elias and his team putting in a lot of hard work during the first two days of free practice, they could not achieve a good result in the end. Elías seemed satisfied with the progress and the direction they were taking during practice and he was able to shorten the gaps to the fastest riders and be in the top ten during FP3.

However, much higher track temperatures during qualifying influenced the performance of his Kalex and therefore he had to settle for a starting position further down the grid. Toni finished the session in 22nd place but he remains optimistic for the race and is confident he can achieve a good result.

#24 Toni Elías – 22nd place – 1.44.325
Up until this morning we had made good progress which allowed us to shrink the gap to the fastest riders. Going into qualifying, the track temperatures had risen and the bike didn’t behave the same way. We wanted to get below the 1.43 to achieve a good grid position but it wasn’t possible. The direction we’ve taken has been the right one and we’ll continue this way. But we have to find out why higher temperatures impact the setup in a negative way, especially the rear end. I’ll analyse the data together with my mechanics and we’ll try to find a solution. In the morning we had a good pace and I’m certain that, if we can solve the problem, we can have a good race. Starting from that far back will be difficult but no doubt we’ll give the maximum and fight with everything we’ve got.

Source: Avintia Racing
Photo: motogp.com