Toni Elias, a best of tenth in the dry this year after a demoralising time at LCR Honda, crashed out of sixth place in Sunday's Japanese MotoGP.
The fast-starting Spaniard jumped from 15th to seventh on lap one and, as the race order see-sawed due to accidents and penalties, was in sixth - between Marco Simoncelli and Nicky Hayden - when he crashed out with seven laps remaining.
"Well first I am very disappointed because we could fight for the 6th position taking the best result so far. The adjustments we made this morning after the warm up session made the bike more stable and even today I took a very good start from the back of the pack.
"I was faster than qualifying and front tyre feeling was a lot better: with this pace I could have obtained a brilliant result for me and the guys but in turn five, which is a very hard braking point, I hit a bump and I lost the front crashing down.
"Anyway I would like to thanks the guys for their efforts and I am looking forward to racing in Phillip Island”.
source: crash
