Elías: “Everything has been perfect”

Elías: “Everything has been perfect”

Monday, 11 October 2010

The newly-crowned Moto2 World Champion spoke exclusively to motogp.com following his success, and you can see the interview and read his comments here.

Moto2 World Champion exclusive: Toni Elias

Toni Elías made history on Sunday in Malaysia when he became the first ever Moto2 World Champion, finishing fourth in the race at Sepang to clinch the title with three rounds to spare.

Following his achievement the Spaniard spoke exclusively to motogp.com, and in the attached video you can watch the 27 year-old’s reaction to his accomplishment. Also available below is a full transcript of Elías’ interview.

“Well it’s a dream come true, perfect, incredible!” said the delighted Elías. “I am starting to feel all this now because when I finished the race I couldn’t feel any emotion, we suffered a lot but we worked hard this year and got this prize. It’s amazing for my family, for me, and for the team. We have worked a lot together.”

“Every minute, every hour, I understand more what happened today. We don’t know in the future if we will be MotoGP World Champion. Now we are Moto2 World Champion and we must enjoy this moment. For sure we will party!”

Discussing an eventful race in which the only rider who could have stopped him from claiming the inaugural Moto2 title, Julián Simón, crashed and fell back down the order, Elías continued: “I saw the crash of Lüthi but I also saw something was wrong with Julián and then I knew I had the Championship in my hands. I did my race trying to follow the first group but I made a mistake with the tyre selection, I didn’t want to risk everything. For today the most important thing was to win the Championship, it’s incredible.”

“When I went into the last corner I thought: ‘Wow, World Champion’. And when I saw my team on Pit Wall with the board saying ‘Moto2 World Champion’ I started to cry. I remembered my uncle Juan, who was very special to me, and I know he was watching me from heaven.”

“In Japan and here in Malaysia I started to feel a bit more nervous and feel the pressure. I had an advantage but it was necessary to handle it perfectly. It was difficult because I didn’t want to make any mistakes and everything has been perfect.”

With seven victories so far this season and the British GP being the only race he has finished outside the top five, Elías’ ability to score highly at each round laid the foundation for his success.

“I think the most important victory was Germany, because we made two steps forward and started to win races,” said the Gresini Racing rider of the start of a four-race winning streak. “We won the Championship there, with that race, I think. Also we won it on difficult days like Silverstone, where we started from 18th and were 22nd after lap one. It was impossible to finish higher than 10th but we took important points and finally that consistency is what made us Champions.”

He continued: “I think we had to fight in a difficult class. Everybody wants to display their best form and get good results, it was very risky. But finally we fought with four riders. Simón was very strong to the end, as was Iannone and Lüthi too. Tomizawa was strong too. Finally we could do it though.”

Elías has made no secret of his desire to make a return to the premier class, and of his potential future plans he commented: “I’m very happy now. I rode in MotoGP and passed to Moto2 where the feeling of riding the bike was a little bit hard. I needed to continue feeling the MotoGP power but I understand very well the 2010 way in Moto2. We had a target to be World Champion and we are now. I hope now I will be back in MotoGP. I know it could be difficult, because to win you need many things. But I am a fighter and I hope to fight for a good position, work a lot, and find a place for 2011.”

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