Moto2 – Preview Jerez – Alex De Angelis: “Difficult track but I think positive”

First European race of 2011 for Team JiR, which next weekend will face the Spanish GP on the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, already the scene of the pre-championship tests a few weeks ago. The Spanish circuit is a historic setting for the world championship, well known by teams and riders. It is raced at the start of a season that promises to be very hard-fought, given the progress made by the bikes and the level of the riders. After 4th place in the first race in Qatar, Gianluca Montiron's Team, with its driver Alex De Angelis, is now looking to improve its performance to grab the podium. We prepare for the Andalusian weekend with the comments and expectations of Gianluca Montiron and the driver Alex De Angelis.

Gianluca Montiron
“During the first GP of the season Alex constantly improved his performance every time he took to the track, as well as pulling off a good comeback and setting the fastest lap of the race. These are important signals for our work. From a technical point of view there are areas of our MotoBI to which we are paying particular attention, specifically in Jerez we will test a new exhaust system combined with different maps. We never lacked top speed during the Qatari weekend, but we know that this can also depend on the final gearing in use.
Part of the work in Jerez will be dedicated to setting up a bike for Alex that will give him confidence straight away. Last weekend we varied the setups every session and this didn't help the rider in finding the race pace straight away. Moto2 is quite competitive and being competitive from the first meter can make the difference at the end of the race. Qatar is a clear example of this: De Angelis spent a lot to close the gap with the leading group, while the good German driver Bradl immediately took a decent lead which he then wisely managed. This category continues to highlight how the values ​​on the field change at every turn, even in Jerez it will depend on who is best able to interpret the characteristics of their bike according to the track. There is a large group of rather fierce young people, at every race they will do everything they can to put themselves under the spotlight, I continue to think that in terms of the championship it will be the consistency of performance that will make the difference."

Alex De Angelis
“Jerez is one of the most difficult tracks for me to digest, we also saw it in the tests, but I want to be positive in facing this trip, even in Qatar we were a little behind at the beginning but we managed to constantly improve. At Losail we found a good basic set up that we will also use for the next races, the guys from Team JiR also worked on the engine data and I am sure that we will have good ideas to work on to improve performance. The race will certainly be close because in Moto2 there are many Spaniards who will want to do well at home, I will fight it out to the end. In Qatar I had a taste of who I will have to keep a particular eye on, but the championship is long.”

JiR