Big Steps Forward For KONICA MINOLTA Honda At Qatar Test

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Shinya Nakano and his KONICA MINOLTA Honda team began their important three-day test at the Losail circuit in Qatar today. With less than a month to go before the opening round of the 2007 MotoGP championship, it’s vital that the team and Nakano learn as much as they can about their new 800cc Honda RC212V before the season begins here on 10th March. On this opening day, the 29-year-old Japanese rider began the work of refining the overall set-up of his V4 Honda in search of a fast lap time.

Taking advantage of a good track surface, Shinya completed 64 laps in total setting a best time of

1’57.850”. Work concentrated on the rear suspension settings as well as making front and rear geometry changes as the Team refined the overall set-up of the 800cc bike. By the end of the day Nakano was out testing new Michelin tyres, work which will continue tomorrow.

Testing will conclude for the KONICA MINOLTA Honda team in Qatar on Thursday before they re-join the bulk of the MotoGP teams at the IRTA tests in Jerez over the weekend of 23rd-25th of February.

Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda

“At this time of year in Qatar the temperature is just perfect for testing. Furthermore, we need to thank the Superbike riders who were here up until yesterday for the condition of the track, as it was very good and clean from sand. Thank you! We started today using the settings we found in Phillip Island as a base and continued testing small adjustments to the bike many of the changes made the new Honda RC212V feel better and better. We concentrated on the overall geometry of the bike to try and improve handling still further. Tomorrow we will spend our time testing different Michelin tyres and at the end of the test we will go for that fast lap! ”

Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda

“The Losail track was immediately fast as we had expected. Thanks to this we produced some times which allowed us to analyse our telemetry data to clearly see the difference between the new 800cc bike and the old 990cc one. We can see that this bike can develop much higher corner speed and this allows a rider to recover the time lost in acceleration and in a straight line, despite a lack of cubic capacity and power. Even today on day one of our test, the stopwatch is showing times comparable to that recorded last year during the MotoGP race. Step by step, we are getting closer to an improved machine set-up but tomorrow this job will be replaced by tyre tests which are equally important if we are to make the most of the new Honda RC212V within the new 800cc rules in time for the first race of the year in just four weeks time. ”


 
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