FAST START FOR TAKA IN GERMANY
LCR Honda IDEMITSU rider Takaaki Nakagami made an impressive start to the German Grand Prix as he finished the opening day of free practice at the Sachsenring in seventh position. The Japanese talent was on the pace throughout the day with world champion Marc Marquez the only Honda rider to eclipse him.
Taka set the tone for his superb display in FP1 as he posted the ninth fastest time in the morning session. He not only maintained that form in FP2, but improved again as he ended just two tenths behind the top three. The 26-year-old is determined to build on his excellent work on Saturday and is now hopeful of progressing into Q2 for the second time this season.
#30 Takaaki Nakagami (7th – 1’21.447)
“I’m very, very happy with the work we’ve done today. We did not really expect FP1 to go as it did, this track is quite tricky and not easy to understand, especially with MotoGP bikes. But I’m really comfortable with this bike and in FP2 we tried a completely new idea for the set-up and it worked well. So both bikes are good, our base bike and the new set-up are working really well here and the lap times are quite consistent.
“I’m very happy about our performance today, the team also looks very happy so that is the main thing. It’s only the first day, but FP1 and FP2 are very important for us to get the starting position. Tomorrow in FP3 and qualifying we will look to keep our position inside the top 10 and hopefully get into Q2.”
