TAKA FINISHES AS TOP INDEPENDENT IN VALENCIA

Takaaki Nakagami again narrowly missed out on a maiden MotoGP podium as he took a superb fourth place in the Europa Grand Prix at Valencia. The LCR Honda IDEMITSU star finished as the top independent rider as he followed home Suzuki duo Joan Mir and Alex Rins and the KTM of Pol Espargaro to match his best-ever result in the premier class.

Starting from the front row, Taka got away well to maintain his position into the first corner. Although he lost a couple of places, he came on strong in the second half of the race passing Miguel Oliveira to reclaim fourth at the end of lap 15. He then closed right up on Espargaro in third, but ran out of laps to attempt a pass on the KTM rider.