Team San Carlo Honda Gresini’s riders completed their first day of free practice at the Indianapolis circuit today, as the second Grand Prix to be held in the United States this season got underway.
It was a difficult day because of adverse weather conditions that worsened during the afternoon, eventually getting so bad that the riders returned to their pit boxes before the end of the allotted time.
Despite that it was a positive day for Alex De Angelis, who ended up in second place on the overall time sheets.
Shinya Nakano was 13th fastest in the morning but dropped to 17th in the afternoon, the Japanese rider unable to improve his feeling with the bike in the deteriorating conditions.
Alex De Angelis (3rd - 1’55’’067): “Second free practice was even more difficult than the first one because the conditions were not consistent. The rain was heavy one minute and light the next so it was impossible to get any useable data for the set-up. At the start of the session we tried some different tyres to the morning but unfortunately I didn’t get a good feeling for them, even though it was useful to try them out. We changed them again and by the end I had a pace I was happy with.”
Shinya Nakano (17th - 1’59’’092): “The first day of free practice here at Indianapolis has been really difficult for me – especially because of the weather, which got worse in the afternoon. Unfortunately we lost the final few minutes of the second session because of the heavy rain, which made it really dangerous out there. In any case we found a decent base setting for the bike so I’m confident we can improve tomorrow.”
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