The LCR driver is now sixth in the general classification thanks to another good performance during the Austrian Grand Prix and holds a significant gap over his teammates.
Takaaki Nakagami continues to lead hostilities in the Honda clan and display its consistency, weekend after weekend. He demonstrated this once again in Austria, where he finished far ahead of the other drivers of the brand and gaining places in the championship.
With a second qualification in the top 10 since the start of the season, the Japanese confirmed his good free practice on Saturday, but the start of the race was a little more complicated and he fell back to 14th position. He was in a fight with his teammates when the red flag was brought out following the accident involving Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli.
Getting back on a good pace in the second start, he recovered throughout the race to take the checkered flag in sixth position and less than a second from the top 5, when Álex Márquez, Cal Crutchlow and Stefan Bradl finished respectively 14th, 15th and 17th, twenty seconds behind him.
“I’m quite happy with my sixth place and this new top 6”, did he declare. “It was a great race, especially the second one. Unfortunately, during the premiere there was a big accident and I'm just glad no one was hurt. After the race was stopped, it was not easy to restart for 20 laps. It was really difficult to stop and then refocus again but the team did a great job. They gave me a lot of positive energy and our race pace was pretty good. »
“It's a shame that I made a mistake in turn three and lost places but I'm really happy to finish with a good result. We have a new race here next weekend and we will try to prepare for another great race. We hope to be able to fight for the podium. »
MotoGP Red Bull Ring 1 J3: standings
Classification credit: MotoGP.com
