Gresini fired up after strong test

After a difficult year at Pramac Ducati, Elias has returned to Gresini for 2009 - and he out-paced the works Hondas for two of the three days of testing in Malaysia.

"I'm very happy as we improved day by day," said the 25-year-old Spaniard. "We started the work on a completely new machine and the feeling was good since the very first day.

"We still have to do lot of runs on the track but the direction we are working in is good. There's a nice atmosphere in the garage, it's really a great team."

Team boss Fausto Gresini hopes that this week's results mark the start of a resurgence for his squad, who are Honda's leading satellite team and have factory-specification bikes.

Gresini were regular winners and title contenders earlier in the decade but didn't reach the podium with 2008 riders Shinya Nakano and Alex de Angelis. Their last win came with Elias at Estoril in 2006.

"I'm definitively happy," Gresini said. "It has been a very positive test, thanks to the hard work of the team and the good material prepared by HRC.

"I couldn't wait to see the new RC212V on track and at the end I was very excited to see that day by day our lap time was faster and faster and the gap to the first riders always smaller.

"Both the riders and the team are very motivated and after this test we are even more optimistic for this MotoGP season."

De Angelis, who has stayed on for a second season, was unable to match Elias's performance in Malaysia, but did improve to 11th - 0.7 seconds behind his teammate - by the final day.

"Today we made a further step forward and I'm very glad about this," said de Angelis. "Today's pace was significantly faster with a better feeling with the machine.

"I'm very motivated. There's still a lot of work to reduce the gap to the first riders but I can't wait to be in Qatar for the next test."