Team San Carlo Honda Gresini took to the track for the first time at Indy this morning as the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis got underway.
With this being a new circuit the opening MotoGP free practice was extended by thirty minutes, giving the riders every opportunity to gather set-up data and confidence.
Alex De Angelis ended the session with the second fastest time, finding a good early feeling for the track despite the incessant rain, before constantly improving.
Shinya Nakano, meanwhile, struggled to put his pace together but did make significant improvements once he established a basic feeling for the track.
Alex De Angelis (2nd - 1’53’’151): “It has been a positive first session because I quickly found a good feeling for the track. Even though I don’t like it that much I have managed to get the hang of it. We know that we’re competitive in the wet, I enjoy riding in these conditions but I have to say that with three different kinds of asphalt here it makes life tricky and it’s tough to find a good feeling. Fortunately we had 30 extra minutes to get used to the track, which we really needed. We’ll prepare for this afternoon by looking at the data from this morning, which is a lot, and try some different tyres. The weekend has barely started but we hope it continues to be positive.”
Shinya Nakano (13th - 1’55’’074): “I like this track because there are some fast sections where I was having fun, although there are some other really unusual sections – in particular turn five, which is very slippery. After an hour and a half this morning I started to understand it better and feel more stable, which enabled me to improve my lap times.”
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