Big improvement from KONICA MINOLTA Honda in final qualifying
KONICA MINOLTA Honda rider Shinya Nakano qualified in seventh
position for tomorrow’s Spanish MotoGP race, in a close
and exciting qualifying session that saw less than half a
second cover the top 12 riders. On qualifying tyres, the 29-year-old
Japanese rider stormed to a best lap-time of 1’39.632”,
meaning that he heads the third row for tomorrow afternoon’s
MotoGP race.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA
Honda
“We are more satisfied than yesterday, that’s
for sure! I think this result is a combination of Shinya improving
and also getting used to the machine and tyre package that
he has at his disposal. We’re hoping that we’re
starting to see some of Shinya’s huge potential on this
new Honda RC212V. It was a very close and exciting qualifying,
I think this result has come from a change in riding style
from Shinya and he’s also starting to gel with the Michelin
tyres a little more. We were a little conservative yesterday
as we had some things to test, but with a few adjustments
Shinya shaved around one second from his lap time on race
tyres. We hope we have a good set-up that will allow us to
stay with the leaders tomorrow. We also need a good start
as Jerez is a hard track to pass at, especially in the first
sector.”
Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda
(54 laps – 1’39.632” – 7th position)
“That was so much better than yesterday! Overnight the
Team explained what my problem has been. I think that maybe
I was pushing too hard in some areas. From the data and by
following some of the top guys I could see that something
was missing from my technique with this new 800cc bike. I
was losing a little confidence, but then I could see that
I was entering the corners way too fast and then as a result
I could not get on the throttle early enough. As soon as I
stopped trying so hard and relaxed a little the times improved.
From 7th on the grid the start will be so important and if
I make a start like I’ve made during practice then we
should be able to get away with the top riders. Race pace
will be low 41s I think, so maybe I need to improve by a couple
of tenths. I want to have a good race as my father is over
from Japan to watch me!”
Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA
MINOLTA Honda
“We decided last night to go back to our IRTA test session
set-up as that was our only previous reference point and it
was a good choice! Shinya was faster from this morning and
was also confident again. We realised how to get the best
from our technical package and for Shinya this meant not being
so aggressive and hard on the brakes and use a little more
throttle from mid-corner. Both race tyres have shown good,
consistent times in our race simulations and I think the top
five or six riders will be around the 1’41.1”
bracket and this is Shinya’s potential too. Although
he wasn’t the fastest on race tyres, he was not pushing
hard, so the lap times came easy for him, our problem was
realising how we could do the lap-time, which we hope we’ve
solved now! The start is essential here, so today we also
practised some starts which have shown great improvement.
From 7th on the grid, Shinya is on the perfect side of the
track for turn one, so we are hopeful that he gets a good
start.”
GP de España, Qualifying practice classification
1) Dani Pedrosa Honda 1’ 39.402”
2) Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1’ 39.453”
3) Carlos Checa Honda 1’ 39.460”
4) Colin Edwards Yamaha 1’ 39.486”
5) Casey Stoner Ducati 1’ 39.524”
7) Shinya Nakano Honda 1’39.632”
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