KONICA MINOLTA Honda heads to Great Britain and Day of Champions
The KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team is looking forward to this
weekend’s British Grand Prix at the Donington Park circuit
in Derbyshire. Not only is the venue the first chance British
fans will get to see the new 800cc grand prix machines ridden
in anger, it is also home to MotoGP’s favourite charity
– Riders For Health. On Thursday the Day of Champions
is held at the 2.5mile circuit, giving fans a chance to bid
for and win some unique motorcycle racing memorabilia. KONICA
MINOLTA Honda’s Shinya Nakano will be entering into
the spirit of the event by attending the autograph sessions
and auctioning off a set of his leathers for the charity.
For the race weekend the Team is hoping that improvements
found during the test at the Catalunya circuit the day after
the race will result in improved performance. Less than a
week after the British GP the Team will be in the Netherlands
for the Dutch TT, which will be the last of four races in
just one month.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA
Honda
“During the test in Catalunya we found some improvements
and I hope that at Donington Park we will see improved performance
as a result. At both Donington and Assen I think we will find
very similar, cooler weather conditions so it’s important
to understand how our technical package and rider will handle
these conditions. I think following the Catalunya test Shinya
has more confidence in the balance of the machine, so now
he and the Team need to find the best setting as quickly as
possible so we’re fast from the first practice session
and this is our main target. We know what the main problem
with our technical package is, but we’re confident we
are working in the right direction to improve things. To make
some big technical changes hasn’t been possible recently
as we’ve had a busy month, having four races scheduled
for June, but we have had improvements from our tyre partner,
Michelin which is helping considerably.”
Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda
“I enjoy riding at Donington Park as it has some very
demanding curves. I’ve scored a third place there before
in my days riding the 250cc machine and a sixth on the two-stroke
500cc bike a year later in 2001 so I know I can go well there.
I’m hoping that we can build on the good day’s
testing from Catalunya last week and move forward again with
the new 800cc RC212V. I am also looking forward to the Day
of Champions at Donington Park this Thursday. We’ve
already done some work this year with the Riders For Health
and I’m looking forward to this big day when we can
hopefully make even more for this very worthwhile charity.”
Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA
MINOLTA Honda
“We think that this track could be one of the best for
our machine, as it’s not really a high-speed circuit.
We’re very optimistic about the event as at the Catalunya
test we found some new 2007 front fork settings and as a result
Shinya is feeling much more comfortable with the machine.
I think for this reason we can expect to have a better result,
than we have so far this season. Also, at Donington you have
lots of fast corners, so if the rider has a good feeling with
the front of the machine you can get a good lap time. So for
this reason we should make a real improvement. The lower track
temperatures we will probably experience at Donington will
be another challenge for us, but the improvements we’ve
seen from our tyre partner Michelin should mean that we will
be in pretty good shape for the event.”
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