Toni Elías

Toni Elías 2010 on Moto2 -Moriwaki.

Antonio "Toni" Elías Justícia (born March 26, 1983 in Manresa ) is a Spanish motorcycle racer .

In the 2010 season he won the motorcycle world championship in the then new Moto2 class on a Moriwaki in the Gresini Racing Moto2 team .

Elías comes from a motorsport-loving family who runs a Yamaha dealer in his hometown and is the third family member to contest motorcycle races.

Career

Early years

Toni Elías gained his first experience on pocket bikes , later also tried motocross , but quickly realized that his true passion was road racing and competed in his first races when he was less than eight years old.

In 1993 he took part in the Catalan Minibike Championship, where he was runner-up the following season. From 1995 to 1997 he competed in scooter races.

In 1998 he made his début on Yamaha in the Spanish 125 cc championship, although he had almost no experience on such motorcycles, he immediately made it into the points. The following season he achieved third position in this series in the overall standings and, as a wildcard driver on a Honda , contested his first three grands prix in the motorcycle world championship , in which he scored two points.

125 cc class

In 2000 , Toni Elías played his first full season in the 125 cc class of the World Championship at the age of 17. He started on a Honda and achieved 20th place overall with 24 points.

In the 2001 season Elías made the breakthrough. He rode a Honda for the MoviStar Júnior Team and took his first podium at the French Grand Prix . He achieved his first victory at the race in Holland , and a little later, at the Czech Grand Prix , even another. With a total of nine podium finishes in 16 races and 217 points, he finished third in the World Cup , just 24 points behind world champion Manuel Poggiali .

250 cc class

For the 2002 season Elías switched to the 250 cc class and started in the Telefónica Movistar Repsol team from Jorge Martínez to Aprilia . Although this year was only intended to gain experience, he managed his first victory at the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi and finished fourth in the overall standings with 178 points.

Elías also started for the Telefónica team the following season . This year he achieved five wins and a total of seven podium finishes. With 23 points behind the world champion, again Poggiali, he reached third place in the world championship.

For the 2004 season Elías switched to the Fortuna Honda team, he achieved one victory and eight podiums, and in the overall standings he finished fourth with 199 points.

MotoGP class

In the 2005 season Toni Elías finally rose to the MotoGP class and started for the Tech3 team on a Yamaha, his teammate was compatriot Rubén Xaus . In the beginning he was able to score regularly, later he even made it into the top 10 more often, a sixth place at the Turkish Grand Prix is his best result of the year. With 74 points he was twelfth overall in his debut season.

In the 2006 season Elías started in Fausto Gresini's Fortuna team on a Honda. At the start of the season he was regularly among the top ten, but then his performance declined. At the penultimate round of the season, the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril , Toni Elías then took his first victory in the MotoGP class completely unexpectedly. He started from position three and fought for victory with Valentino Rossi and Kenny Roberts junior throughout the race . Especially when braking into the first corner, he was able to overtake his opponents spectacularly time and time again. On the last lap Rossi already looked like the winner, but Elías did not give up, caught the last corner better than the Italian and sat down on the home straight in his slipstream . Shortly before the finish line, he pulled out and managed to overtake Rossi. The finish photo decision saw Elías ahead by the tiniest 0.002 seconds - the closest ever measured distance between winner and runner-up in MotoGP history. This success also secured the Spaniard his place in the team for the following season. The Rossi fans, however, complained later, when their idol had lost the world championship fight against Nicky Hayden by only five points, that this distance would have been decisive and that Valentino Rossi would have missed the title by just 0.002 seconds.

Toni Elías in 2008 on Ducati

Toni Elías 2007 on a Honda during test drives in Sepang

The 2007 season denied Elías in the Gresini team and drove the Honda RC212V is a bike that was the World Champion Hayden almost equivalent. After an average start of the season with second place at the Turkish Grand Prix as the best result, Elías broke his left thigh on June 28, 2007 when he fell during training for the Dutch TT and had to sit out for three races. After his return, Toni Elías showed consistent performance and reached third place in Japan. In the overall ranking he was twelfth with 104 points.

For the 2008 season Toni Elías switched to Luis d'Antin's D'Antin MotoGP team , where he competed on a Ducati .

At the race in Indianapolis to the 2015 season Elías replaced the injured Karel Abraham . He drove a Honda RC213V-RS on the Cardion AB Motoracing team.

statistics

title

• 2010 - Moto2 - World Champion on Moriwaki
• 2017 - AMA Superbike Champion on Suzuki
• 17 Grand Prix victories

In the motorcycle world championship

season	class	motorcycle	run	Victories	Podiums	Poles	Points	Result
1999	125 cc	Honda	3	-	-	-	2	33.
2000	125 cc	Honda	16	-	-	-	24	20th
2001	125 cc	Honda	16	2	9	4th	217	3.
2002	250 cc	Aprilia	16	1	5	-	178	4th
2003	250 cc	Aprilia	16	5	7th	5	226	3.
2004	250 cc	Honda	16	1	8th	-	199	4th
2005	MotoGP	Yamaha	14th	-	-	-	74	12.
2006	MotoGP	Honda	15th	1	1	-	116	9.
2007	MotoGP	Honda	15th	-	2	-	104	12.
2008	MotoGP	Ducati	18th	-	2	-	92	12.
2009	MotoGP	Honda	17th	-	1	-	115	7th
2010	Moto2	Moriwaki	17th	7th	8th	3	271	World Champion
2011	MotoGP	Honda	17th	-	-	-	61	15th
2012	Moto2	Suter / Kalex	13	-	-	-	48	17th
	MotoGP	Ducati	3	-	-	-	10	24.
2013	Moto2	Kalex	11	-	-	-	21st	18th
2015	MotoGP	Honda / Forward Yamaha	6th	-	-	-	2	27.
total			229	17th	43	12	1760

In the Superbike World Championship

season	team	motorcycle	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	Nice Race laps	Points	position
2013	Red Devils Roma	Aprilia RSV4 Factory	8th	-	-	-	-	-	70	16.
total			8th	0	0	0	0	0	70

References

Web links

Commons : Toni Elías  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Toni Elías on the official website of the Motorcycle World Championship (English).
• Toni Elías on the official website of the Superbike and Supersport World Championship

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ruben Zimmermann: "Comeback: Toni Elias represents Karel Abraham in Indianapolis". motorsport-total.com, July 31, 2015, accessed on August 3, 2015 .