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POSITIVE FIRST DAY FOR TEAM SAN CARLO HONDA GRESINI:
NAKANO THIRD IN THE MORNING, DE ANGELIS BATTLES THROUGH TONSILLITIS
 Team
San Carlo Honda Gresini were able to reflect on a positive
first day at Estoril following the first free practice sessions
for the Grand Prix of Portugal. Despite difficult conditions,
with cold and rain making for a slippery track surface, Shinya
Nakano was able to end the first session with the third fastest
time. Alex De Angelis has been the victim of a heavy bout
of tonsillitis and his participation was in doubt until the
last minute due to a high fever.
Alex de Angelis (27 laps; 1’41.033):
“Today hasn’t gone very well, unfortunately I’ve
spent the last two days with a high temperature which has
made me weak and a little fuzzy. Thanks to the Clinica Mobile
I was able to get out on track for first practice I’m
really grateful to all the staff for that. It was important
to get something out of today and we have done that even though
I wasn’t at full fitness and only managed five laps
in the morning. Luckily in the afternoon I was able to contest
the whole session even though I still felt very weak. I crashed
but fortunately I wasn’t hurt any further.”
Shinya Nakano (46 laps; 1’39.309):
“I’m very satisfied with how these two opening
free practice session have gone. In the morning we saw the
damp conditions and went for a wet setting with soft rain
tyres that allowed me to set a good pace immediately. Later
the track started to dry and with a change of tyres I was
able to go even faster, ending up in third place. In the afternoon
we managed to find a good pace from the start on the dry track
but with the low temperatures it was difficult to make the
right tyre choice. We had a few problems with the rear end,
which became too unstable, but I’m confident about tomorrow
because together with the engineers we have recently found
a good way to improve the setting for qualifying.”
Official lap times:
1 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'38.507
2 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'38.547
3 Colin EDWARDS Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1'38.632
4 Nicky HAYDEN Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'38.688
5 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'38.868
6 Andrea DOVIZIOSO JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA 1'39.171
7 Casey STONER Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'39.202
8 Shinya NAKANO San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1'39.309
9 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1'39.332
10 John HOPKINS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'39.474
11 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'39.591
12 Chris VERMEULEN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'39.946
13 James TOSELAND Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1'40.055
14 Alex DE ANGELIS San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1'41.033
15 Marco MELANDRI Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'41.112
16 Anthony WEST Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'41.572
17 Sylvain GUINTOLI Alice Team DUCATI 1'41.875
18 Toni ELIAS Alice Team DUCATI 1'43.26216
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