De Angelis delighted with fourth place

Sunday in Mugello was a memorable day for San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Alex de Angelis, as he headed the timesheet in the warmup and worked up to fourth place in the race itself. The San Marino rider had his best race to date in the premier class, whilst teammate Shinya Nakano did not quite share the rookie´s enthusiasm.

Alex de Angelis – Fourth

`I am so happy with this result – this has been an unforgettable day for me. I was fastest in the warm-up and then we´ve had this fantastic result in the race. We knew that the bike was running really well but we were a little down on top speed and we weren´t sure we could stick it out with the other riders in the early battle. I made a disastrous start and was down in fourteenth at the first turn but I refused to give in and at one point I even thought I was in with a shout of a podium because Pedrosa had lost touch with Stoner and he was lapping slower than me. Anyway that wasn´t to be and fourth place is a real bonus, especially in front of our home crowd and all the fans who came to support me.´

Shinya Nakano– Ninth

` It was a difficult race for us today. The start wasn´t bad and I could see the lead group ahead of me so my intention was to try and catch them. Unfortunately I lost too much time behind Nicky Hayden and when you´re fighting like that it´s hard to keep a consistent rhythm. So basically I lost touch with the group ahead of me and lost the opportunity to finish any higher up. I´m disappointed with the result here but confident about the Catalunya GP.´