Gresini riders struggle with wet set-up

The Gresini bikes were uncompetitive all weekend, with Elias and Marco Melandri finishing 12th and 10th respectively at Donington Park.

But both showed significantly better form as the track dried, and ended up setting the first and second fastest race laps in the closing moments.

"I struggled in the race because I couldn't get the tyre up to temperature and find grip," said Elias.

"I had a problem in braking and ran wide a few times, which made me lose time and this meant I couldn't recover positions as I wanted.

"When the track began to dry I was able to set the fastest lap of the race. The positive thing is that we've gathered a lot of information in the wet which we'll be able to use together with Bridgestone and try to solve some of the problems we've had this weekend."

Melandri made a similarly large improvement once the rain stopped.

"We tried a few set-up modifications in the warm-up and improved the feeling on the front but couldn't do the same on the rear," he said.

"When the track was really wet I struggled because the bike was sliding a lot.

"Then as it started to dry out the situation improved because the bike felt more balanced. The lap times show that because I went from doing a 1:46.4 to a 1:41.4 on the last lap."

The result dropped Melandri from fourth to sixth in the riders' championship.