Unlike fellow rookies Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso - whom de Angelis has finished behind in the 250cc World Championship for the past two seasons - Alex had never ridden a MotoGP machine before. But he acquitted himself well, setting the 13th fastest lap time, 0.57secs behind experienced team-mate Shinya Nakano.

"I'm very happy. I confess that I was excited and a bit nervous before going on track, as it was my first time on a MotoGP bike," grinned the 23-year-old. "Once I went on track, the tension went way and I felt much more comfortable.

"I appreciated a lot the power and the electronics of the RC212V, in particular I like the feeling when I get on the gas," he continued. "I still have a lot to learn, in particular I need to change more the front, otherwise the bike wheelies and I have to get used with the feeling with carbon brakes. Everything is new for me but today it seemed more easy that I had expected. I'm very happy with my new team, I feel at ease."

Nakano has moved 'sideways' from JiR to Gresini for 2008, and ended day one with his new team eighth on the timesheets and having lapped 0.236secs inside his best race lap from Sunday's season finale.

"I'm very satisfied with today's test, it's only the first day but I got positive impressions," said the 30-year-old Japanese. "We focused on testing and I'm impressed by the feeling with the rear tyre, the grip is excellent. We suffered a bit from chattering on the front end. We changed tyre and the feeling improved. Tomorrow we will test another tyre and we will see the difference. At the moment we haven't worked with the set up so we don't know if this chattering depends from the tyre or the setting. I'm still not confident so I lapped trying to understand the bike and the tyres without pushing too much. I'm very happy with the team, I feel supported."