De Angelis blames tyres for slump

The Gresini Honda rider had been second quickest behind Casey Stoner in both of yesterday's practice sessions and was fifth this morning, but slumped to 10th in qualifying.

"I'm sorry about it, because up to now it had been a fantastic weekend, I had gone really quick," de Angelis told Italia1 television.

"We knew we had some problems with the qualifying tyres, but you always have the hope of being able to do a bit better. Instead we got tenth once again, and the race has yet to start, so I'm not downhearted but I clearly expected to do a bit better."

The 250cc series graduate said he was frustrated that a lack of qualifying performance was forcing him to push too hard to show what he could do in the races, leading to incidents such as his early crash in the last race at Assen.

"Now I'm waiting for some important developments from Bridgestone, because I think I've shown that when things work okay I can go quick too," de Angelisa said. "We just lack the ability to start at the front with the rest to be calmer and avoid doing mistakes like the one I did at the last race."

He denied that Bridgestone was neglecting the Gresini team, though.

"No, I'm only saying that the problem in qualifying hasn't been solved," he said. "I'd like to solve it as soon as possible, also because I don't know how often we can perform so well in the following races."

De Angelis remains optimistic about his race chances despite his qualifying frustrations.

"Today I did a 1:22.1 with the race tyre and 1:21.9 with the qualifier, so that means that I went slow with the qualifying tyre but quick with the race one," he said.

"I think I have the pace - not to win - but to aim for something very important for me. We can do a good race. It's tough to overtake here, but today I looked at the others, I tried to understand where I can be quicker than the rest, and I think I know."