Konica Minolta Honda scored more points at a difficult British Grand Prix today. With weather conditions expected to stay wet throughout the 30-lap race, the rain actually stopped falling after a few laps and then the conditions quickly dried-up. Despite the tricky conditions, 29-year-old Japanese rider Shinya Nakano secured two World Championship points, allowing the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team to move up a place in the overall MotoGP rider’s championship. The hectic pace of the series now continues with the Team immediately heading to Assen in Holland for round nine of the series, which takes place at the legendary Circuit Van Drenthe on Saturday 30th June.
Gianluca Montiron – Team Manager Konica Minolta Honda
“Today’s race was very hard for us due once more to the very changeable weather conditions that we experienced! We really wanted a full-wet race and I think like many Teams, we were expecting the rain to stay, but after a few laps the rain stopped and the track began to dry. From the middle of the race, the conditions quickly dried out, making things difficult for Shinya – especially in the last few laps – but he managed to hold on for some points. This has meant that we have overtaken a Team in the overall championship standings. Now we have to concentrate on the next race, which is less than a week away at Assen, in Holland. We hope that we can have a race where the conditions stay constant for everyone!”
Shinya Nakano – Rider, Konica Minolta Honda (14th position)
“With the conditions changing so much that was a difficult race. I think my start was not so bad, but then during the first lap I had a slide with the rear tyre and I had to catch it before I fell down, this meant I lost a couple of places. For the first 10 laps things were OK, but then the conditions began to change and the track started to dry out. This meant that I could not push hard as I would have liked, as when the track began to dry, the tyre would slide more. When this began to happen I decided to hang on and get some points for the overall championship positions.”
Giulio Bernardelle – Technical Director, Konica Minolta Honda
“This morning in warm-up our position was not so bad with the tyre we chose as the conditions were so wet. We decided to start the race with the same rear tyre as the feeling from Shinya this morning was better in comparison to Friday when we first tested in the wet. With the rain falling just before the race, this was the correct choice for us. Unfortunately for us the conditions changed about a third of the way through the race and the rain stopped and the track began to dry. When conditions are stable – either full wet, or full dry – Shinya is able to be more consistent, but when the track is constantly changing the feeling for our rider is not so good. We have scored points though and we have learned a lot which we can take with us to Assen.”
British GP - Race results
1. Casey Stoner - Ducati - 50’ 40.739”
2. Colin Edwards - Yamaha - 51’ 52.507”
3. Chris Vermeulen - Suzuki - 51’ 56.417”
4. Valentino Rossi - Yamaha - 52’ 02.566”
5. John Hopkins - Suzuki - 52’ 16.257”
14. Shinya Nakano - Honda - 52’ 50.579” (- 1 Lap)
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