KONICA MINOLTA Honda makes set-up improvements at Catalunya
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.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA
Honda
“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 – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda
(50 laps – 1’ 43.334”)
“With the tyres we have tested and the setting changes
we have made the bike felt 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.”
Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA
MINOLTA Honda
“This morning we tested some different front geometry
settings. These were nothing new but they were what we tried
at the start of the season. We found that this combination
with the new Michelin front tyre lessened the problem of chatter
and also helped with the turning of the bike, which was something
that Shinya was looking for. In the afternoon we did some
testing to finalise our choice for the race tyre for tomorrow
and I’m quite confident as we have a good combination
for front and rear that should work in the high temperatures
that we have experienced today and should experience again
tomorrow. We did have one bit of bad luck during our timed
attack with the qualifying tyre as on his first run Shinya
came into the first corner to find one of the Team Roberts
bikes going very slowly, they touched and this spoiled our
first qualifying tyre run. Despite this we are happier today
as Shinya was able to make one or two runs consistently at
a fairly good speed, so this is a big improvement for us.”
GP of Catalunya - Qualifying practice classification
1) Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1’ 41.840”
2) Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 1’ 41.901”
3) Dani Pedrosa Honda 1’ 42.002”
4) Casey Stoner Ducati 1’ 42.117”
5) John Hopkins Suzuki 1’ 42.233”
12) Shinya Nakano Honda 1’ 43.334”
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