Toni Elias ride not in danger

Toni Elias is not in danger of being axed by the LCR Honda squad, despite his wretched return to MotoGP in 2011.

The reigning Moto2 world champion has endured a disastrous return to MotoGP and in the opening four races has only claimed a best result of ninth. In three out of four races he’s qualified last, but LCR Honda boss Lucio Cecchinello denied he’d considered sacking the under pressure Spaniard.

The Italian told MCN: “Changing the rider is something we are not planning at the moment because it would not be fair for Toni. We need to give him more time and the reality is that MotoGP is a very high level and if we changed the rider who could come in? Which rider can assure me of a top ten result?

“We think the most intelligent way to handle and manage this difficult start of the season is to stay calm and focussed and keep working to give Toni a bike that he wants and look for a small improvement. We are very realistic. Our target for results is to stay in the top ten.

“We are not there at the moment but we have done some small improvements and if we keep going in this direction then maybe in two or three races we will reach a result closer to the top ten. Toni has shown in the past that with the right bike he can perform really, really well.”