Courtesy of LCR Honda Team
| Takaaki Nakagami had to settle for ninth position in the Gran Premio Lenovo di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini on Sunday after being demoted a place for exceeding track limits on the final lap. Staring from 14th on the grid, the LCR Honda IDEMITSU rider battled his way through the field and looked to have secured eighth after passing Jack Miller on the final lap but was handed a penalty following the chequered flag. The Japanese star laid down a marker in the morning as he posted the fastest time in Sunday’s warm up session and then produced a fine start to the race proper as he made up three places on the opening lap. Having battled past Johann Zarco at the midway point, Taka then moved through Jack Miller late on but ended up behind the Ducati man in the final standings after being penalised by officials. Takaaki Nakagami – 9th |
| “Today was definitely quite a positive race for us because yesterday and Friday we were losing time and we did not put in a good enough performance in qualifying – 14th on the grid is not good for the race. But with the new holeshot device we are definitely improving at the start, and during the race the lap times were quite consistent around 33.1 or two. But this morning we got the top time which was really, really good for the team and were able to do a 32, but in the race we were not able to do that so we need to understand what the difference was between the warm-up and the race. It’s another top-10 and we need to see how we can improve for the next race, but definitely in the next race we can fight for the podium again. We are really looking forward to another Misano race weekend, we’ll stay positive and keep working hard to get that first podium.” |