This weekend will be the first European round of 2011 for Team JiR, who will be racing at the Grand Prix of Spain this weekend on the legendary track of Jerez de la Frontera. The track has already been the scene of the pre season tests of a few weeks ago and the Spanish circuit has great historical fame for the World Championship in general. The event is well known by teams and riders, is traditionally scheduled at the beginning of a season that is always expected to be very hard-fought due to the progresses made by both machines and riders over the close season. After their 4th place in Qatar, Gianluca Montiron’s Team, and his rider Alex De Angelis, are now trying to improve their performance still further to grab a podium finish! So, let’s warm up our engines for the Spanish GP with comments and expectations from Gianluca Montiron and Alex De Angelis. Gianluca Montiron In the first GP of the season Alex improved constantly his performances each time he took the track, besides having made a good recovery and taking the fastest lap in the race. These are important signs for our work. Considering the technical aspect there are some areas of our MotoBI to which we’re paying more attention, in particular in Jerez we’ll test a new exhaust system combined with different injection maps. Our highest speed was never low during the weekend in Qatar but we all know that this could be influenced by the final gear, so this development may prove interesting. A part of our work in Jerez will be oriented to give Alex a machine that gives him immediately confidence. In the last race we changed set-up in each session and this didn’t help the rider to find the right pace from the very beginning. Moto2 is pretty competitive and being fast from the first session can make the difference at the end of the race. Qatar is a clear example of that: De Angelis spent a lot of time catching up the leading pack, while the Stefan Bradl took immediate advantage of his confidence and grid slot. This category underlines session-after-session how the grid and potential results can change continuously. Also in Jerez the winner will be the one that will be able to better interpret his machine’s characteristics according to the track. There are a large number of young riders who are very determined and in each race they will do their best to take the limelight, so I keep on thinking that for the Championship consistency will be the winning key. Alex DeAngelis Jerez to me is one of the hardest tracks to adapt to, we saw this also in the tests, but I want positive thinking at this point and remember that also in Qatar at the beginning we were not so fast but then we improved session after session. In Losail we found a good basic set-up, on which we will rely for the next few races, Team JiR technicians analyzed also the data from the engine and I’m sure we will have important things to work on to improve our performance. For sure the race will be hard because in this class there are many Spanish riders that will be willing to try hard and hit the front for their home race, but I will also play all of my cards. In Qatar I could see who I will have to pay attention to, but we must remember that the Championship is still long. More, from a press release issued by Marc VDS Racing Team: KALLIO AND REDDING CONFIDENT AHEAD OF JEREZ The Marc VDS Racing Team return to Jerez this weekend, the scene of two successful pre-season tests for Scott Redding and Mika Kallio and the venue for the second round of the 2011 Moto2 World Championship. After a difficult start to the season in Qatar, where both Redding and Kallio finished outside the points, the Marc VDS riders head to Jerez determined to get their championship campaigns back on track with two strong results at the Spanish Grand Prix. The Jerez circuit is one at which the Marc VDS riders have enjoyed success in the past. Kallio took the race win in the 250cc class in 2008, to add to his 125cc podium finish three years earlier. While the Jerez podium has eluded Redding so far, the British rider previously finished fourth at the Spanish Grand Prix, during his second season in the 125cc World Championship. Situated in southwest Spain, not far from the coastal city of Cadiz and on the outskirts of Jerez de la Frontera, the Circuito de Jerez has a complex layout, offering riders a real challenge. It boasts 13 turns over its 4.42km distance, with a combination of slow technical corners and fast sweeping turns making stability under braking and a good feeling from the front tyre critical when it comes to bike set-up. Mika Kallio #36: “For me the critical thing this weekend will be tyres. In Qatar I couldn’t get either tyre option to work and we struggled to find a good feeling all weekend. I hope that, for this race, Dunlop will bring the same tyres we tested with at Jerez earlier this year, when we found a good set-up on the bike and my lap times were close to those of the riders at the top of the timesheet. It’s important that I get a good feeling from the front of the bike again here at Jerez, and the tyres will play a big part in achieving this. I came into this season with one goal, to finish in the top five from the very start. I didn’t manage that in Qatar, but I hope that we can turn things around in Jerez this weekend. Scott Redding #45: “Qatar was a complete fail as far as I’m concerned, but after two successful pre-season tests at Jerez, we head into this weekend knowing that we have the pace. The bike will suit the Jerez track better than it did Qatar; we have a pretty good base setting for this track already, which means we can be a bit adventurous with the set-up in practice, as we can always switch back if changes don’t work as expected. The fast corners here are where you make or lose time, so a good feeling with the front of the bike is important. This is one area in which we still have some work to do, but I’m confident that we can score a good result this weekend and get our season back on track.” Michael Bartholemy: Team Manager “We struggled in Qatar, so I’m happy to return to Jerez, where Scott and Mika were well and truly on the pace during pre-season testing. After the problems we had with tyres in Qatar, we know from testing here that the Dunlop tyres work well around the Jerez circuit, so that’s one less problem already. Both riders are fired up for this weekend, determined to get their season back on track, so I’m pretty confident that we’ll leave here on Sunday with two good results and our first championship points of the year.”