Japanese GP: Gresini Racing Friday practice report

Adapting To New Forks First free practice for the Grand Prix of Japan took place at Motegi today, with Team San Carlo Honda Gresini beginning their quest to defend the colours of the team in their third home race of the season. Both Alex de ...

Adapting To New Forks

First free practice for the Grand Prix of Japan took place at Motegi today, with Team San Carlo Honda Gresini beginning their quest to defend the colours of the team in their third home race of the season.

Both Alex de Angelis and Shinya Nakano received new material from Showa today and the pair spent both sessions trying to adapt the setting of their machines to the new forks.

They weren't helped by wet conditions in the opening practice, when Alex's work was set back by a crash at the end of the session. The rookie wasn't injured in the fall although it did slow down work on his machine. Shinya also worked to incorporate the new forks today although he suffered some chattering problems in the dry conditions and still has plenty to work on with the team tomorrow.

Shinya Nakano (11th - 1'49''190): "Free practice took place in strange conditions today. In the morning it was wet and in the afternoon it was dry. In the wet the feeling with the bike was good and we found our pace in the dry pretty much straight away. We tried out a variety of tyres for the race, which the weather forecast is predicting will be dry. After modifying the setting during the afternoon the feeling improved and so did my confidence on the bike. Eleventh place doesn't look good but I'm confident for tomorrow."

Alex De Angelis (18th - 1'50''158): "It has been really difficult for us because we're testing a new suspension that Showa have brought for us to Motegi but the conditions haven't really allowed us to test it out properly. This afternoon we had a few different set-up problems and at this track, which has a lot of braking areas, we haven't managed to be fast or find the right direction to follow because the conditions were changing with every lap. Together with the technicians we'll look at the data and try to understand whether we should continue in the same way tomorrow or take a step backwards and focus on developing this new material with patience."