TOUGH QUALIFYING FOR TAKA IN SEPANG

LCR Honda IDEMITSU rider Takaaki Nakagami suffered disappointment in qualifying as thunderstorms hit the Malaysia Grand Prix. Heavy rain deluged the Sepang International Circuit during the latter stages of Saturday with Nakagami eventually having to settle for 22^nd position on the timesheets.

As on Friday, Taka was on the pace during a dry FP3 and, despite finishing in 14^th, was only a couple of tenths outside the top 10 positions. Like many riders, he then fell in FP4 as the rain came down in earnest and, after a delay, both qualifying sessions took place on a soaked circuit. Despite starting from the eighth row of the grid, the LCR man remains confident he can battle through the field on Sunday, provided the race remains dry.

#30 Takaaki Nakagami – (22^nd – 2’16.558) 

“Of course I’m disappointed with today’s result in qualifying. It was a difficult situation as there were some delays and the track condition went from dry to full wet and it was not perfect. I think we didn’t quite get the front tyre choice right, we went with soft and it was too soft for me – the feeling with the front of the bike was not so nice. We were losing a lot of time on the braking point. Everyone knows that the schedule has changed a little bit tomorrow, so hopefully the race will be in dry conditions because we have good pace in the dry and a good set-up on the bike. I believe we can catch up to a good position.”