Bad luck hampers KONICA MINOLTA Honda in first practice
KONICA MINOLTA Honda are confident of bouncing-back from
a series of incidents which has seen rider Shinya Nakano sit
uncharacteristically down the order during first practice
for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix. With the first session
at the Istanbul circuit damp it was only in the final 30-minutes
of the session that riders ventured out onto the track. With
temperatures low, a number of riders were caught out by the
conditions. Unfortunately, a technical problem with Nakano’s
Honda RCV212V meant that he had to use his number two machine,
which wasn’t set-up with the fork settings and tyres
the Team wanted to test for Sunday’s race. In the afternoon
session bad-luck struck again, when Shinya crashed early on
in the session – once more before any useful information
on the chosen set-up was gained. If the Team have two incident-free
sessions tomorrow, they’re confident of a turn-around
in time for Sunday’s race.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA
Honda
“We have suffered some very bad luck today! This morning
the damp conditions meant that many riders didn’t go
out until the final part of the session and this meant we
didn’t have much of an opportunity to analyse and prepare
for the race on Sunday. Tomorrow it is very important to make
the best use of the both sessions for us to decide and understand
our tyre strategy for race day. Today we saw how the new tyre
rule can affect the results. Tomorrow the temperatures are
expected to change again during the day, so the qualifying
session in the afternoon will be very interesting as people
will push hard to get the best result they can, while still
deciding their own tyre strategy for the race. Right now engine
technician is analysing all the data to understand what happened
to our engine this morning.”
Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda
(40 laps – 1’ 56.936”)
“Track conditions were poor this morning so most riders
only went out on track during the last 30 minutes or so and
this and our technical problem with the engine of our number
one bike didn’t allow me to get much in the way of useful
data for the afternoon session. In the afternoon I was pushing
hard to try and find the limit and it was then that I crashed
at the final corner. Maybe the conditions were still not perfect
from the morning. We now have much to do tomorrow as we have
to work out what tyres we want to use for the race which may
be difficult as temperatures are expected to change again
tomorrow and again on Sunday so these factors may well determine
the results of Sunday’s race.”
Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA
MINOLTA Honda
“It’s been a tough day. This morning the track
was still wet and then when the conditions were improving
we had a technical problem with the engine and we had to stop
using our number one machine. Our second bike had different
settings and tyres from what we wanted to try, so we didn’t
really gain any useful information. In the afternoon Shinya
crashed on the machine with the fork settings and tyres we
wanted to test early in the session, so again we had to revert
back to a bike, which didn’t have the settings on it
that we wanted to evaluate. The fact that we haven’t
yet had a chance to try the tyre or settings we want to gives
us hope for tomorrow, but we now have a lot to do in the two
sessions.”
GP of Turkey – Free practice classification
1) Casey Stoner Ducati 1’ 54.200”
2) Loris Capirossi Ducati 1’ 54.979”
3) John Hopkins Suzuki 1’ 55.062”
4) Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1’ 55.120”
5) Toni Elias Honda 1’ 55.158”
18) Shinya Nakano Honda 1’56. 936”
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