Friday feeling delights San Carlo Honda Gresini in Donington

New brakes and significant afternoon improvement gave San Carlo Honda Gresini something to smile about on Friday afternoon, with Alex de Angelis and Shinya Nakano fifth and seventh, respectively, on the combined timesheets.

Alex de Angelis – Fifth

` This first day of free practice has gone really well. I was second fastest in the morning and fifth fastest in the afternoon, lapping amongst the fastest riders throughout. I´m happy with this result for lots of unexpected reasons – despite having made progress over the past two races it was unthinkable that I could be so fast here! I´m really happy with the feeling with the bike and I hope I can improve even more before qualifying tomorrow. I´m satisfied with the consistent good performance from the Bridgestone tyres and the new front brake given to us by Nissin, which is more powerful and really helps out around here. As far as tomorrow is concerned, the weather will have an impact on the outcome of qualifying but in any case I´m confident because in the last wet test we did I was fast too.´

Shinya Nakano – Seventh

`I´m pleased with how I was able to ride today and with the general feeling with the bike. We tried two different types of rear tyre but we still have to decide which is better suited to our bike and my riding style. I´m happy with this afternoon´s session, when we managed to improve considerably from the morning and I set the seventh fastest time. For qualifying tomorrow there´s a question mark over the weather but I´ll do my best to get a grid position that reflects the true potential of this team.´