MotoGP – Brno QP1 – Makoto Tamada in 4th row

Makoto Tamada was unable to continue the trend of improvement that had been undertaken this morning in the last hour of free practice. From the beginning of the hour of qualifying, the Japanese driver no longer had the same good feeling about rear grip when exiting corners. In fact, the accelerations on the three fastest sprints on the circuit were the points where Makoto accumulated most of the gap from the leaders. Tomorrow morning, therefore, the 20 minutes of warm up will not only be a refinement of the work done so far, but the Team will have to try to try further useful changes to allow Tamada to constantly run at a good pace.
The start of the Czech Republic Grand Prix is ​​scheduled for 14.00 pm, with an atmospheric situation that should remain similar to today's (air and asphalt temperatures around 25 and 40 degrees respectively).

Luca Montiron – Konica Minolta Honda Team Director

“This morning we seemed to have found a good setting for our RC211V, stopping the clock on the fastest lap at 1'59.471, not too far from the leaders in race trim, also thanks to the top speed of the last free hour. Then this afternoon, as soon as we returned to the track, it seemed as if the work done in the first three free hours had vanished, and we practically had to start the work of balancing our bike all over again. This is one of the problems we have encountered since the beginning of the season, in fact, we have never managed to be competitive for two consecutive rounds of testing. We must reflect on this point, because it makes us understand that the package at our disposal can help us obtain interesting results, but we must be able to make the best use of it as soon as possible. The fourth row is not the result we are aiming for, but with a good start, things could change as early as tomorrow.”

Makoto Tamada – Konica Minolta Honda rider
(12th position – 1'58.610 – 22 laps)

“I can't be satisfied with the result obtained today, but this was the best I could do in these conditions. Today, both in the morning and in the afternoon, I did many laps looking for the best rear tire to use in the race, but without finding the right solution. The situation has improved slightly since yesterday, but not enough. However, we obtained a lot of useful information for the settings to be made for tomorrow's race. If I can get a good start, I'm confident I can stay close to the fastest group."

JiR Racing