Test IRTA MotoGP, day2: Shinya Nakano satisfied with day-two progress

KONICA MINOLTA Honda are satisfied with their day’s work, which saw Shinya Nakano spend most of the second day’s free practice session well inside the top ten. At the end of the session, while other teams opted to use qualifying tyres to set a fast lap, the team felt it was more important to fine-tune the settings and tyre choices for the coming Spanish GP which takes place here at Jerezin a month’s time.

Despite a late start due to fog, Nakano soon got to work putting in 76 laps of the Spanish circuit on his 800cc machine. In November Shinya tested the RC212V for the first time and set a 1’41.84” lap. Thanks to the development of the new bike, Nakano slashed that time to 1’41.269”. Tomorrow the 29-year-old Japanese rider will try to improve the front-end settings of his machine before trying to set a fast lap-time on qualifying rubber. Between 14.05 and 14.45pmthe televised BMW M Award will take place, where MotoGP riders will battle to win a BMW Z4 M sportscar for the fastest lap of the session.

Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager 

“I’m satisfied with the work we have done today as Shinya has been among the fastest riders of the day and was able to keep a good consistent pace. This allows us to look at the start of the season with hope. In the last few minutes of the session we did not use qualifying tyres, instead we concentrated on evaluating our rear race tyres. Tomorrow our attention will be directed to tyres once more and then we will do our best to give Shinya a chance to go for a fast lap with qualifying tyres and settings.”

Shinya Nakano (76 laps – 1’41.269”)

“We tried some different rear tyres today and some were an improvement and I was quite happy with front tyre performance also. We finally found a good front and rear tyre combination, this wasn’t with the front tyre I liked in Qatar, but it felt good. I’m not happy with my final position of 12th, but the other guys were using qualifiers. We didn’t use them, as we wanted to check race settings, which is more important. I was happy to be up the order until near the end, we are hoping to do a long run tomorrow, but it depends on the overall conditions. I think we’re approaching the limit with the front-end of the bike now as I’m pushing that much harder than before so we’ll make some adjustments there I think.”

Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director

“We decided today to use only race settings and tyres and not try for a quick lap on qualifiers. It was much more important to try race tyres and settings that may be good for the race in a month’s time than go for one quick lap. The conditions between now and the race are more than likely to change so by testing more race tyres we have more information for the race ahead. We are happy that Shinya was so high up for such a while as we need to be in the first five or six positions as we believe this will show our true potential in the coming races. We did some work on the rear suspension settings today and we’ve moved forward as Shinya is now pushing harder so tomorrow we will make some changes to the front forks. We will be also be letting Shinya go out on qualifying tyres as we want to win that BMW car!”