Nakagami appeared at Misano at least as happy with his Honda as one of his colleagues can currently be on a Ducati. At the end of the Misano tests which followed the San Marino Grand Prix on the same track, there was at least one Honda driver who was satisfied with the two days spent on the track. This is the LCR driver Takaaki Nakagami, whose enthusiasm when leaving the scene sowed doubt on the fact that he was indeed riding in an RC213V and not in a GP21. And yet, he finished his work in fourth place with convictions, which contrasted sharply with the situation of his teammate Alex Marquez…
So what did he find Takaaki Nakagami on his Honda to appear so optimistic for the four remaining races of this season? We don't know, but his relief must be sincere in view of his present situation. Indeed, with 46 points less than last season at the same time, we can say that the promotion of Takaaki Nakagami on the latest version of the Honda did not go as planned. The Japanese, who only finished a race outside the top 10 once last season, has done so eight times in 2021, with two retirements recorded in those two years.
But there are still four races left for the Japanese to make a less depressing copy. Tenth in the San Marino Grand Prix race, Nakagami rose to fourth place over the two days of testing, finishing just 0,151s off the lead. A performance that made him happy: “ I'm so happy with the result and the feeling on the bike. We made a big improvement, the feeling on the bike is so good and I'm really happy with our ranking ", said Nakagami. « I want to thank my team, all the mechanics because these last two days have been very difficult for them, so I appreciate everyone's effort ».
Nakagami: “ we definitely found what we were looking for«
And the Japanese concludes: “ I can now say that we definitely found what we were looking for, and we are ready for the next race in Austin, which I am looking forward to ". One last sentence that will not fail to appeal to his teammate Alex Marquez who is experiencing a very different situation: fifteenth in the race, Alex was the 13th fastest in the test, +0.675s behind the leader Aleix Espargaró on Aprilia…
« We tried several things over the two days, I wasn't really happy because we missed some things, but we went on a correct path ", did he declare. " We also tried new chassis and I felt really good on the new stuff and great on the bike in general which is the most important thing ».
« Obviously, the level of grip during testing is always better than normal, but we found some good things and we improved a lot to still be within 1'32 per lap. Now we just have to keep working like we have been doing and keep improving day by day. I can't wait to be at Austin and it will be a new circuit for me on a MotoGP ».
Neither of the two LCR drivers, however, tried the 2022 Honda prototype seen on track with Marc Marquez, Pol Espargaro et Stefan bradl. Nakagami is twelfth in the world championship and Alex Marquez sixteenth with four rounds remaining in this championship MotoGP.
