De Angelis and Nakano start strong in Laguna Seca

San Carlo Honda Gresini´s Alex de Angelis and Shinya Nakano once again featured prominently on the first day of MotoGP practice, this time for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. For De Angelis it was a debut ride at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and a fourth place on the timesheet for his troubles, whilst Nakano took sixth after a fantastic morning session.

Alex de Angelis – Fourth

`It´s been a day to remember! I could never have expected to go fourth fastest on my debut at this circuit, especially considering the problems we had this morning. In the first session the bike was sliding around a lot, the chattering didn´t allow me to stay on the right line, but in the afternoon we sorted out this setback and I was able to set a lot of laps at a good pace. The track is unusual, no doubt about that, but I was able to learn it by following other riders and in certain ways it is similar to Sachsenring, where I´ve always been really strong. Now it´s a case of trying to carry this form into qualifying.´

Shinya Nakano – Sixth

`I´ve lost a few positions from this morning but I´m still near the front guys so I´m happy. After the first session the objective was to improve the performance of the bike in the first sector and we managed that, although as a result we lost a bit in T4 - through the downhill section after the Corkscrew. Tomorrow we´ll keep working on the setting to try and take another step forward in this area. The ambient temperatures today weren´t so high but the track was pretty warm so tomorrow will be important to pick the right tyre for the race.´