KONICA MINOLTA Honda bounced back from yesterday’s practice session to record the tenth fastest time at the Shanghai race circuit today. Team rider Shinya Nakano slashed nearly three seconds off his lap time around the long 3.387mile circuit after the Team reverted back to a previous machine set-up. The 29-year-old former 250cc GP runner-up recorded a best time of 2’00.157” and was lying as high as fourth during the hour-long session. Weather predictions for tomorrow’s 22-lap race aren’t looking positive, with rain forecast for the afternoon.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda
“We would like to be higher up – of course we would – but compared to yesterday we are happy. We have gone back to a setting used in the last two races and by doing so Shinya has recovered the feeling he had with the machine. For tomorrow’s race I think it will be important to get away from the line well and be as near as possible to the lead group. The weather forecast says rain for tomorrow, but they did say that for today too, so who knows? At the moment we have to improve the performance of our overall technical package, as it doesn’t allow Shinya to ride as he would like. It doesn’t give him the feeling and feedback he needs to have the confidence to push hard and go fast. After this race we need to analyse the situation with our technical partners and find a way forward. The positive for the Team is that we can see that the direction we went in at the start of the season with set-up was the right one. ”
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