Elias pleased with tyre consistency

The Gresini Honda rider ran at the foot of the top ten initially before charging through the field as his Bridgestones came up to temperature.

He eventually passed world champion Nicky Hayden for fourth, and then fended off fellow Bridgestone runner Casey Stoner in the closing laps.

"I struggled a bit at the start of the race because I could not get the tyres up to temperature quickly, but it was possible to keep ninth place in the initial laps," said Elias.

"After that I was able to maintain a constant and competitive rhythm for the duration of the race. When the rivals in front of us started t drop their pace a bit, the rhythm from the Bridgestone tyres helped me make my way through the field and recover some ground."

Bridgestone's Hiroshi Yamada reckoned that his company's hopes of Jerez success were dashed in qualifying.

"Unfortunately, starting from the second and third rows of the grid was more of a disadvantage than usual because we have seen such a competitive field this weekend, which made progressing up the order tricky," said Yamada.

"The fact that Toni and Casey were able to lap in the high 1:41s in the closing stages, around half a second quicker than some of our rivals, and make up so man places in the process demonstrates that we had the tyres to achieve more this afternoon."