Team San Carlo Honda Gresini today continued their hectic MotoGP schedule with the first day of free practice for the Grand Prix of Catalunya at Montmelò. Alex De Angelis and Shinya Nakano were the quickest of the Honda RC212V satellite riders, with the fifth and seventh fastest times respectively.
The result confirms the top job done by the team at Mugello last week. Alex and Shinya are now brimming with confidence for tomorrow, when the final free practice will take place before the all-important single qualifying practice in the afternoon.
Alex De Angelis (5th - 1’43’’233): “I’m really happy with the performance today because the lap times near the top are all really close and that gives me confidence. We still haven’t rediscovered the optimum feeling we had at Mugello because we’ve still got some problems with traction but I think more or less everybody is struggling with that. Bridgestone have brought some great tyres here and that allowed me to really enjoy myself on the bike. We still need to find something that allows me to be as fast as we have been recently without pushing too much.”
Shinya Nakano (7th - 1’43’’442): “Finally I’ve been able to improve my lap times, finishing the first day of free practice in the top half of the table. During first free practice this morning the track conditions made things difficult because the rain overnight made for a slippery track so I couldn’t go as fast as I would have liked. In the afternoon the grip improved though and so did the lap times. At the moments we’ve got two kinds of tyre that we’re deciding between for the race so hopefully we can decide which one works best for me tomorrow. There are a few other things to decide and small changes to make but I’m sure we’re on the right lines.”
Fausto Gresini – TEAM MANAGER: “Today I’m really happy for both Alex and Shinya because between them they’re doing a good job here at Montmelò, finishing the first day in fifth and seventh place respectively. I think it’s an important result that confirms the good work we did at Mugello and our objective is to back it up with another good result like the one we got in Italy last Sunday. We obviously have to remain cautious but I’m convinced we’ve finally taken a definitive step forward.”
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