He is discreet by nature and was effectively forgotten during two of the three days of testing at Sepang, which marked the return of MotoGP in this 2019 financial year. But the LCR rider recalled on the third and final day that he had been sparkling, just before the winter break was declared, on the circuits of Valencia and Jerez. We must therefore not forget a Nakagami who is in the game.
Japanese LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami stood out with the ninth fastest time in the MotoGP IRTA tests at the Sepang International Circuit. Like most of the riders, the Japanese of the LCR Honda Idemitsu team achieved his personal best time of 1'59.148 minutes on Friday morning, when the Malaysian track was the fastest, thus earning him a solid ninth final position having always appeared in the Top 10.
7th on the first day, the Japanese pilot explained: “The general position is not bad but this morning it took a little time to get the feeling back with the bike. The last time we rode was in November, so it had been two months without riding a MotoGP! During the winter I did a lot of training to prepare for the coming season, but even then it's always different from reality. Little by little, I regained my sensations with the bike and the time was finally quite good. We have to focus a lot on fine-tuning the machine at the moment, we're still not happy with the braking stability, but for the first day it's not that bad. We don't have any new parts, so it's very simple for us: we focus on what we have and make it as efficient as possible. »
10th during the intermediate day, Takaaki Nakagami had nevertheless slightly improved his time, revealing another area to work on: “The second day is over, and we finished P10, and being in the top ten is a good thing for us. However, these are tests, and the main thing is that we stay focused on our program and our schedule, which we are doing. We are working hard to improve the settings of the bike. Yesterday we struggled a bit with braking stability, but today we finally found an improvement and a better feeling on the brakes. On the other hand, we still lack a little grip at the rear. Tomorrow we will have to see if we can find a better balance on the bike, and then we can do a race simulation. At the end of the day today we got into the 1'59s, and that was my goal for the day, so that's good. We will continue to attack tomorrow, of course, and we will see what happens. »
« It was a good day, but a very tough three days because the heat doesn't make it easy to do many laps“, said the LCR pilot which improved by 8 tenths during the last day. “ But these are very important tests and we managed to improve every day. I'm very happy to have reached the top 10. We finished in P9, so I'm happy to be in the top 10 again. The time isn't too bad either, I'm really happy to be close to the 1'58 mark, but I still feel like I can't get the most out of a lap, even though my race pace has improved significantly »
“The LCR Honda Idemitsu team worked very hard this week to constantly improve things for me. We have good potential on the bike, I feel strong, so the goal is just to continue like that at the Qatar test and see what we can do from there. , added on his birthday the one who celebrated his 27th birthday.
MotoGP, Sepang J3 Test: times
| 1 | 9 | Danilo Petrucci | Ducati GP19 | 1:58.239 | ||
| 2 | 63 | Francis Bagnaia | Ducati GP18 | 1:58.302 | 0.063 | 0.063 |
| 3 | 43 | Jack Miller | Ducati GP19 | 1:58.366 | 0.127 | 0.064 |
| 4 | 4 | Andrea Dovizioso | Ducati GP19 | 1:58.538 | 0.299 | 0.172 |
| 5 | 12 | Maverick Vinales | Yamaha M1 | 1:58.644 | 0.405 | 0.106 |
| 6 | 35 | Cal Crutchlow | Honda RC213V | 1:58.780 | 0.541 | 0.136 |
| 7 | 41 | Aleix Espargaró | Aprilia RS-GP | 1:59.022 | 0.783 | 0.242 |
| 8 | 21 | Franco Morbidelli | Yamaha M1 | 1:59.141 | 0.902 | 0.119 |
| 9 | 30 | Takaaki Nakagami | Honda RC213V | 1:59.148 | 0.909 | 0.007 |
| 10 | 46 | Valentino Rossi | Yamaha M1 | 1:59.155 | 0.916 | 0.007 |
| 11 | 93 | Marc Márquez | Honda RC213V | 1:59.170 | 0.931 | 0.015 |
| 12 | 42 | alex rins | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:59.180 | 0.941 | 0.010 |
| 13 | 6 | Stefan bradl | Honda RC213V | 1:59.368 | 1.129 | 0.188 |
| 14 | 53 | Tito Rabat | Ducati GP18 | 1:59.485 | 1.246 | 0.117 |
| 15 | 36 | Joan mir | Suzuki GSX-RR | 1:59.486 | 1.247 | 0.001 |
| 16 | 20 | fabio quartararo | Yamaha M1 | 1:59.497 | 1.258 | 0.011 |
| 17 | 5 | Johann zarco | KTM RC16 | 1:59.640 | 1.401 | 0.143 |
| 18 | 44 | Espargaro Pol | KTM RC16 | 1:59.751 | 1.512 | 0.111 |
| 19 | 88 | Miguel Oliveira | KTM RC16 | 1:59.949 | 1.710 | 0.198 |
| 20 | 17 | Karel Abraham | Ducati GP18 | 2:00.378 | 2.139 | 0.429 |
| 21 | 55 | Hafiz Syahrin | KTM RC16 | 2:00.766 | 2.527 | 0.388 |
| 22 | 50 | Sylvain Guintoli | Suzuki GSX-RR | 2:00.990 | 2.751 | 0.224 |
| 23 | 38 | Bradley Smith | Aprilia RS-GP | 2:00.995 | 2.756 | 0.005 |
| 24 | 66 | Mika Kallio | KTM RC16 | 2:01.020 | 2.781 | 0.025 |
| 25 | T2 | Nakasuga/Folger | Yamaha M1 | 2:01.243 | 3.004 | 0.223 |
| 26 | T1 | Jonas Folger | Yamaha M1 | 2:01.719 | 3.480 | 0.476 |
