QUALIFYING PRACTICE – GP OF PORTUGAL: PIERLUIGI COLLINA
ENJOYS TEAM SAN CARLO HONDA GRESINI EFFORTS FROM PIT-LANE
 Team
San Carlo Honda Gresini riders Shinya Nakano and Alex De Angelis
qualified in eleventh and sixteenth place respectively for
the Grand prix of Portugal under the unmistakable gaze of
one of sport’s most recognizable faces.
Alex paid the price for a lack of time spent on track this
weekend, having been unable to clock up many laps and gather
vital set-up data yesterday when he was still recovering from
a fever. Shinya also had some set-up issues today but his
overall feeling with the bike continues to improve.
The Team San Carlo Honda Gresini hospitality unit today welcomed
Castrol, who unveiled CASTROL INDEX to the media. It is a
data analysis system that monitors the performances of football
players during a match. Pierluigi Collina, who has helped
develop the system alongside Castrol, was also at the presentation
and he was then able to enjoy some two-wheeled action from
the team’s pit box. Interested parties can check out
the new system online at www.castrolindex.com.
Alex De Angelis (16th 1.38.823): “Considering
my physical condition over the last couple of days it was
important for me today to spend the whole day out on the bike
– in both free practice and qualifying. I feel better
now although the session did leave me feeling a bit low because
I’ve never qualified so far back – not in MotoGP
or in any other class. We still have work to do but we know
that this is a difficult moment for us made worse by my illness.
We were left a little behind in terms of finding the right
set-up for qualifying today and the race tomorrow. This evening
we will look at the telemetry to try and understand where
we can improve our pace.”
Shinya Nakano (11th 1.37.664): “It
was a difficult session because yesterday we were in top form
but today things have changed and it was difficult to improve
my pace because the bike was unstable. I had some difficulties
under braking and acceleration, with a few problems emerging
on the front and rear. We have worked on improving the setting
but we were still a long way from finding the right balance.
With starting from the fourth row tomorrow it will be important
to get away well because it is difficult to overtake here.
The objective for tomorrow’s race is to improve on the
ninth place finish at Jerez”.
Andrea Soldo (European Marketing Manager for Castrol
Motorcycle): “I was really happy to welcome
Pierluigi Collina here to Estoril. MotoGP is a series that
has heavily featured data analysis for many years so it is
interesting to compare the system that Collina has helped
to develop with the telemetric system of a motorcycle racing
team. In fact, during the meeting between Collina and Jimenez
(Shinya Nakano’s Chief Engineer), some very similar
parallels emerged between the two sports and parallelism is
close to a phrase we truly believe in: THE MORE YOU KNOW THE
BETTER YOU PERFORM”.
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