Mixed fortunes for Gresini pair in Far East

Shinya Nakano and Alex de Angelis reflect on their contrasting fortunes in the A-Style Grand Prix of Japan qualifying session on Saturday afternoon.

Nakano is on the third row for his home race, whereas De Angelis will have to test his fitness in warm-up on Sunday having crashed and suffered blows to his wrist and shoulder.

Shinya Nakano - ninth

`Today the weather was better than yesterday for both the morning and afternoon sessions, with high temperatures that allowed us to work well. During the morning we worked on the bike set-up and tyre choice, trying a couple more tyre solutions at the start of qualifying and putting together a pace I was happy with. I´m not completely satisfied with ninth on the grid but the third row isn´t bad. It will obviously be important to get a good start tomorrow because it is difficult to overtake here. I´m confident for the race because my pace is good.´

Alex de Angelis - eighteenth

`It has been a really tough day today. We have definitely improved the race set-up but we don´t seem able to put it together in qualifying. Unfortunately I crashed on my last lap and couldn´t improve my position any more. In any case I´m confident about tomorrow because we´re in good shape with the race setting. Obviously we´re not going to be challenging for sixth or seventh but I´d be happy with a top ten.´