Donington : Konica Minolta Honda – Day OneThe KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team splashed their way around the 2.5mile Donington Park circuit today, enduring treacherously wet conditions which are likely to continue all through the race weekend at the Derbyshire circuit.
Shinya
Nakano finished the day in 15th overall, following a busy first day's practice, in which he spent the sessions testing four rear Michelin tyres in anticipation for Sunday's 30-lap British Grand Prix.
Tomorrow the Team will make further adjustments to the front suspension of the 800cc Honda RC212V machine and try a different front Michelin tyre in a bid to give the 29-year old Japanese rider increased feedback from the front-end of his machine.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda
“It's been another exciting practice session, thanks to the conditions and this means we have an exciting race in prospect for Sunday, as anything can happen. It's been good to see a new MotoGP rider – Anthony West – doing well in the wet conditions. Tomorrow we need Shinya to better understand his Honda RC212V in the wet conditions and this is what we shall be looking at improving in the sessions tomorrow. This means the Team also has to analyse the data and make some adjustments to help Shinya get the feeling that he's looking for so that we can improve our performance. It's looking like we have the same weather conditions in for the whole weekend, which – to be honest – is better than one wet session, one damp session and one dry, which is what we've had to deal with in recent races. ”
Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (50 laps – 1' 46.926”)
“The conditions are not so good, but I think the weather forecast is for more of the same all weekend, so at least we know that these are the conditions we will be dealing with tomorrow and on race day. We still have a little chatter from the front-end, but it's not so bad.
I want to try and get more braking stability on the bike during the final sector: The Fogarty Esses, Melbourne Hairpin and Goddards and also improve our corner entry feeling, so that's what we will be working hard to do tomorrow.”
Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda
“We did some work on suspension today and tried four different rear tyres. This afternoon both the tyres we tried in these wet conditions felt good, so the choice should be positive for us if the race is held in similar conditions, which is what we expect. Our difficulty is that Shinya still feels that he lacks a little confidence when in the first part of the corner, so for this reason we will be trying a different front tyre tomorrow and also making some adjustments to the front forks. We need to improve the front contact feeling for Shinya, so this is what we will do our best to accomplish tomorrow. Despite the conditions, we're happy as it looks like it will be wet all weekend, so at least we know what to expect and that we're not constantly trying to guess what the weather will be like for the next session.”
Konica Minolta Honda
