MotoGP news

Nakano hoped for more from qualifying

Konica Minolta Honda took twelfth place in today's closely fought qualifying session for tomorrow's Catalan MotoGP race. Team rider Shinya Nakano took around three-quarters of a second off his Friday time this afternoon, but more crucially found a set-up for his Honda RC212V MotoGP machine that eradicated some of the chatter that has been affecting the front-end of his bike. Today the conditions were very hot - with temperatures around the 30 degree Celsius mark and track temperatures around 50 degrees. Tomorrow it is expected that the hot weather will continue for the 25-lap race.
Team boss Gianluca Montiron commented, "Unfortunately for us I think for Shinya wasn't able to use the two qualifying tyres to his best advantage. With the first tyre we had a problem when there was contact in the first corner between Shinya and another rider and then with the second tyre he made a small mistake in the first sector. Positively we were able to maintain a good rhythm and I think this will mean that Shinya will be able to be competitive with the second group of riders. At this stage in the season we have to concentrate and work hard with the technical package we have at our disposal. We are very confident in our Technical Partners and we think that soon we can work together to improve the package still further, but in the meantime every Team member will be trying 100% to get the best results we can." 

Shinya Nakano added, "With the tyres we have tested and the setting changes we have made the bike elt a little bit better today which is just what we were looking for. The problem we've had, with both chatter from the front-end of the bike and the actual getting the bike to turn itself has improved. The conditions were hot again today, but I'm pleased that I was able to improve my lap time and we've picked what I think is a
good combination of race tyres for tomorrow. We had a little bit of bad luck with coming across a slower rider when I had the first, soft qualifying tyre on, but this happens. The start will be important for us, but it is easy to overtake here, so from 12th on the grid I will be going for a top eight finish."

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