KONICA MINOLTA Honda stays on for testing at Catalunya
Following on from yesterday’s exciting Catalan MotoGP
race, many riders and Teams stayed on for a day’s testing
at the 2.9mile Montmeló circuit. KONICA MINOLTA Honda
rider Shinya Nakano spent most of the day in the saddle, spending
three hours on circuit in the morning and a further four hours
in the afternoon as he and the Team tested Michelin tyres
and different suspension settings to improve the feeling and
feedback from their 800cc Honda RC212V race machine.
The whole test was very positive for the KONICA MINOLTA Honda
Team, as their 29-year-old Japanese rider recorded a lap-time
almost a second-and-a-half quicker than his best during yesterday’s
25-lap race. Shinya suffered a low-speed crash towards the
end of the day at the second-gear corner at the end of the
back-straight, but didn’t suffer any injuries and was
able to use his second bike for the remaining 15 minutes of
the day.
The MotoGP season resumes in just under a fortnight’s
time at Donington Park in Great Britain.
Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda
(76 laps – 1’43.475”)
“The crash at the end wasn’t a big problem, we
just lost grip at the front and down I went. I’m fine,
no injuries! I’m pleased with our work today as we made
some improvements to the feeling from the front of the bike
by changing to different specification front forks. We also
tried a different rear shock and I think the front and rear
combination balance was better than yesterday’s race.
We also tried six different rear tyres which should help us
for the next race at Donington Park. We recorded a better
time than during yesterday’s race, which shows our improvement
so I’m a lot more positive for the next few races.”
Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA
MINOLTA Honda
“Today we have had the possibility to have a complete
day’s testing on track, which has been very important
considering our present need to improve our overall technical
package. It has been beneficial to have the time to try some
different set-up configurations and check some other things,
as it is difficult to do this over a normal race weekend thanks
to a lack of practice time. First of all today we started
working on the suspension settings, starting from the race
setting we used yesterday. We tried to find a new solution
for both the rear suspension and the front forks. In the afternoon
we worked on some new rear tyres with a new type of construction
developed by Michelin. On the whole the indications have been
positive. We haven’t found any massive improvements,
but we didn’t expect to, instead it’s been important
to make small improvements with the technical package we already
have at our disposal, and this is what we are doing in time
for the next round of the MotoGP series in Great Britain.
At the end of the day’s testing, Shinya suffered a small
crash at the second-gear corner called La Caixa, just after
the back straight. It was nothing serious and 15 minutes later
he could go out on track again and complete the day’s
testing with his second bike.”
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