KONICA MINOLTA Honda takes hard-fought point at scorching
Catalunya
KONICA MINOLTA Honda scored a point at today’s exciting
Catalan MotoGP race. Ducati’s Casey Stoner took the
win after a fierce battle with Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi
and Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa. KONICA MINOLTA Honda
will now stay on at the Barcelona track and spend tomorrow
looking at the data from this weekend to test further set-up
and tyre combinations in a bid to improve their performance
before heading to Donington Park for the British Grand Prix
in two weeks’ time.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA
Honda
“Today was a very exciting race and probably one of
the best that I have ever seen! Perfect for the 112,000 fans
watching at the circuit. Obviously for us we were expecting
to get a better result today, but we suffered a little from
the nature of the Montmeló circuit where the grip levels
can change with the track temperature or conditions. When
Shinya tried to push hard in the corners he would run wide,
but tonight we can look at the data again as we are staying
at the circuit to test tomorrow and I’m sure all the
Team members will be working hard to find an improved set-up
combination for our Honda RC212V. I think we are in a transitory
period at the moment, where we have to work hard with the
package we have, safe in the knowledge that our Technical
Partners and the Team will find a solution for improved performance.
We have a proven, race-winning Team and this along with having
one of the best sponsors in the paddock means I am confident
that we will soon be racing with the top group of riders once
more.”
Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda
(15th position)
“It was a very frustrating and difficult race for me.
I said yesterday that I had a good feeling in hot conditions
but we just didn’t have that today for some reason.
When I pushed hard the bike would run wide in the corners.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow and having more time
out on the track so we will be working hard again to make
more improvements. This is important as we still have a further
two races to come this month.”
Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA
MINOLTA Honda
“This morning we tested our race setting and were satisfied,
but temperatures were lower than this afternoon’s race.
Shinya’s comments were that he felt he had less grip
than yesterday and this was the reason why he could not push
as hard as he would have liked during the race. The Catalunya
circuit is well known for the changeable track conditions,
but it was the same for everybody. At the beginning of the
race we were able to do a good lap time but again we lost
out a little when it came to running consistently good times.
We now need to look at the data once again and find ways of
moving forward before the next Grand Prix, which takes place
at Donington Park. Tomorrow we will test some new Michelin
tyres, which have a new construction and these will be the
tyres we will look at using in the next few MotoGP races.
We are confident both in our Technical Partners and the Team’s
ability to find a solution to help us to improve performance
for the remaining races in the 2007 season.”
GP of Catalunya - Race results
1) Casey Stoner Ducati 43’ 16.907”
2) Valentino Rossi Yamaha 43’ 16.976”
3) Dani Pedrosa Honda 43’ 17.297”
4) John Hopkins Suzuki 43’ 24.721”
5) Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 43’ 34.760”
15) Shinya Nakano Honda 44’ 11.100”
|
