KONICA MINOLTA Honda are heading into the unknown this week as the MotoGP circus heads towards Turkey and the Istanbul Park race circuit. With the new-for-2007 800cc MotoGP bikes never having been tested around the circuit, the pressure is on for KONICA MINOLTA Honda and their tyre partners Michelin to hit the ground running in time for the first practice session on Friday morning. With two 10th places so far, the pressure is now on both Team and rider to improve and close the gap on the title leaders.
The Team’s rider – 29-year-old Japanese star Shinya Nakano – enjoyed a fruitful wet-weather test at Jerez after the race and is confident that his feeling with the new machine on the new Michelin rubber should begin to show improved results.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda
“To the outside World it may seem like there’s been a month break, but during this time the Team and I have been very busy! I’ve been involved in the planning of our promotional activities that we’ll do until the summer. We do this to create a better collaboration with our Partners offering them additional services compared to any other team. Now our organization is able to offer a good range of services, of which many of our Partners take advantage.
With this work complete, now I can focus my attention to our racing results. I have high expectations from this part of the season, because I’m sure we can now expect a step forward in Shinya’s performance. I’m confident that at Jerez our rider began to understand better the characteristics of the new Honda RC212V. I also think that riding in the wet conditions at the Jerez test helped him to acquire more confidence with the machine and Michelin tyres. So we’ll go to Turkey to enter in the top eight positions and gradually – race-by-race – I hope we can stay in the top group. From the Turkish GP we have to come up with a Team strategy, along with Michelin, to select the best tyres for a circuit where nobody has tested before with this new machine. This will make things very interesting! Obviously we’ll do our best as always to give the maximum support to Shinya. ”
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