Cautious start for KONICA MINOLTA Honda at Qatar
KONICA MINOLTA Honda made a steady start today at the first
event of 2007 at the Losail circuit in Qatar. With the new
800cc machines making their debut this year, new rules have
also shaken things up, with only 14 front and 17 rear tyres
allowed for each race weekend, meaning a more strategic use
of tyres is required over the whole three-day period. With
conditions dry and a track temperature of 42 degrees, 29-year-old
Shinya Nakano completed a total of 55 laps, recording a best
time of 1’57.574”. Nakano and the Team will now
fine-tune the set-up of the Honda RC212V and find the perfect
tyre for the race, as well as making the best use of the super-sticky
Michelin qualifying tyres in the afternoon session.
Qualifying takes place tomorrow, while the race takes place
on Saturday 10th March.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA
Honda
“We are being cautious with our tyres thanks to these
new rules. Today for us 10th position is so-so, but this is
a first time for everybody and the track conditions will improve
over the weekend, which is why Shinya did not push too hard
today. In the morning Shinya was consistently 6th or 7th which
is better, so we will maybe change some settings and prepare
the Honda RC212V machine for tomorrow’s much more important
qualifying session. We are one second from the top and for
us this gap is a little too big at the moment, but we will
improve.”
Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda
(55 laps – 1’57.474” – 10th position)
“I think I was riding OK this morning but we had a different
tyre on this afternoon. I made some changes to the front and
rear suspension to get the bike to turn quicker and this made
a big improvement, but the tyre I used in the afternoon wasn’t
as good as the one I had in the morning, so I’m looking
forward to using these settings on a better tyre. These new
rules are the same for everybody, but we decided to keep some
tyres for Friday’s practice and qualifying. I think
we need around half a second or more from tomorrow, so I will
be trying my best to find that time. Track conditions have
been better for a first day than I’ve seen them before,
but they’re sure to improve when more rubber gets laid
down. Tomorrow I’ll be looking at refining my race set-up
– which is vital – and then using two qualifying
tyres to find my place on the grid.
Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA
MINOLTA Honda
“Today we worked on suspension a little and made some
gearing adjustments to Shinya’s machine. I think we
have lost half second at the moment from our test here in
February, but this is not such a big problem, I think we should
be able to go for a 1’57.1” or a 57.2” consistently
tomorrow. Conditions are similar to February’s test
here, but with only 17 rear tyres we have to conserve some
of these for tomorrow as well as Saturday’s race. We
will have two qualifying tyres for the final session so I
think tomorrow we will understand where we are in comparison
with our rivals.”
Qatar GP, Day 1 Free Practice Classification
1) Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1’ 56.464”
2) Colin Edwards Yamaha 1’ 56.779”
3) Casey Stoner Ducati 1’ 56.839”
4) John Hopkins Suzuki 1’ 56.972”
5) Carlos Checa Honda 1’ 56.981”
10) Shinya Nakano Honda 1’57.574”
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