TAKA PREPARED FOR EVERYTHING AT LE MANS

Takaaki Nakagami believes the weather will once again play a big part in this weekend’s French Grand Prix. Having secured a top-10 finish in every round of this year’s world championship so far, the LCR Honda IDEMITSU rider is looking for another positive result at Le Mans, but is wary of a mixed forecast leading up to Sunday’s race.

Taka took ninth position last time out in Jerez as he came home just behind LCR team-mate Cal Crutchlow. Although he struggled at the French circuit 12 months ago, the Japanese star feels he is now a different proposition in the MotoGP class and is looking to challenge the top 10 yet again, whatever the weather brings.

#30 Takaaki Nakagami

“It is not one of my favourite tracks, but in the past I had my first ever pole position in Moto2 here which is good. Last year, in my first season with the MotoGP bike I struggled a little bit over the weekend, but now I have a different bike and more experience. At Le Mans the weather is critical and this weekend the forecast is not so good, so we will try to prepare well for any conditions. It will be tough, but we’ll try to have constructive meetings with the team and prepare for everything. We are focused on our bike and we will work hard to try and close the gap on the factory bike. But first of all, we need to understand the weather on Friday, then we can start planning for qualifying.”