The Honda Gresini rider finished the opening day directly behind the factory 2008 RC212V of Nicky Hayden, having steered his 2007-spec RC212V to within 0.89secs of world champion Casey Stoner on the soft compound rubber.

"I'm very satisfied with this first day. I was able to improve the feeling with the bike lap after lap," said de Angelis, who just edged out reigning 250cc champion Jorge Lorenzo. "I'm starting to be quite confident and I have fun riding this bike. Today we worked on the set up of the bike and tested some solutions in order to improve the traction. At the end I scored my best time with a qualifying tyre. Tomorrow we will start testing some tyres."

Experienced team-mate Shinya Nakano finished the day in eighth place, 0.1secs behind the San Marinese.

"It was a very positive start. We worked methodically, focusing firstly on the balance of the bike, then on the set up and finally we worked on the clutch. In total I completed 65 laps, using always race tyres," he confirmed. "The feeling with the bike has improved during the day and I think tomorrow we will make a step forward working with Bridgestone technicians. According to the programme, we should test some new front tyres."