FINE MARGINS FOR TAKA AT MISANO

Takaaki Nakagami will start from the fifth row in the Grand Prix of San Marino after narrowly missing out on a spot in Q2 on Saturday. The LCR Honda IDEMITSU rider pushed to the limit, but was unable to progress from a highly-competitive Q1 session and will now start his team’s home GP from 13^th position on the grid.

Sitting 13^th overnight, the Japanese star found considerable improvement in FP3 and battled hard to secure a top-10 spot, eventually finishing in 12^th – missing out by just five hundredths of a second. He demonstrated encouraging race pace by taking seventh in FP4, but saw his hopes of advancing from Q1 scuppered by a late crash, leaving him third in the session.