Shinya Nakano and team-mate
Alex de Angelis will start twelfth and sixteenth on the US Grand Prix grid after both fell during Saturday's qualifying session at Laguna Seca.
Having been third and seventh respectively after free practice, Nakano was first to fall in the qualifying hour when he lost the front of his Gresini Honda at Turn Three.
"Unfortunately on my first lap with a qualifier I was going a little faster than usual and lost the front, although I was lucky not to be injured," said Shinya. "I got straight back to the box and went back out on the second bike but couldn't improve my lap time as much as I would have hoped. Anyway, my pace is good and the objective is to get a good start and make up positions as early as possible."
But whilst Nakano escaped unharmed, de Angelis was less fortunate. The
MotoGP rookie was thrown over the high side of his Bridgestone-shod RCV212V at the penultimate turn, and left in obvious pain after breaking a bone in his left thumb.
"Unfortunately I crashed when we were trying out the race tyre. I tried to go back out but the pain in my left thumb was too much, so after just one lap I came back in with twenty minutes still remaining of the session," he said. "Obviously that meant I didn't get chance to put in a qualifier."
