The first day of free practice for the San Marino Grand Prix took place today, with Team San Carlo Honda Gresini hoping for a positive showing in what is a particularly special event for them.

For De Angelis this is his first-ever home race in the MotoGP class – the San Marino rider spending today looking to find the right set-up for his Honda RC212V machine at this circuit.

It was also a day of research for Nakano, who continues to develop the new Honda, adapting it to his riding style and the demands of this track.

Alex De Angelis (8th - 1'35''861):
“This was my first day on a MotoGP bike at Misano so my pace this morning was pretty fast. Before working on the set-up I just tried to get my bearings around this track on this bike and discover where the secrets are. In the afternoon we made a change to the front suspension and my feeling with the bike improved straight away. I'm confident and looking forward to tomorrow.”

Shinya Nakano (9th - 1'36''100):
“We started out with the base setting we found at Brno but Misano is a completely different kind of circuit and is much more technical. We've worked on changing the balance of the bike and in the afternoon the feeling improved quite a lot, with my lap times coming down also. Obviously we need to find more consistency and we'll aim for that tomorrow with some more work on front feel.”

Fausto Gresini - Team Manager:
“Overall it's been a positive start and I'm satisfied with this first day of free practice. I'm happy with the job done with Alex because he managed to set a good pace immediately. It's a shame that Shinya has had some set-up problems but we have to remember this is only his second race with this bike. It is working well but it needs to be set up well in order to be fast. We'll keep working to improve and we're confident for tomorrow. ”

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