Kawasaki: "A solid start"

ByEurosport

Published 26/03/2006 at 15:50 GMT

Kawasaki walked away from the Spanish Grand Prix with a solid seventh place for star rider Shinya Nakano, but there was a sense of underachievement amongst the team after the Japanese rider started from the front row and given the performance of the Bridgestone tyres, was expecting better.

Nakano was quick away from the line, but was forced to back off as Toni Elias missed his braking marker for the first turn and collided with Valentino Rossi right in front of the Kawasaki ace. Nakano tried to fight back immediately, but was thwarted by the difficult track conditions.

While track and weather conditions were perfect for qualifying yesterday, the situation was different today for the race. Strong, gusting winds slowed Nakano through some of the faster turns, and brake problems left him unable to attack Marco Melandri and Casey Stoner towards the end of the race.

"After such a good qualifying session I'm disappointed that I didn't finish higher today," Nakano said. "There seemed to be less grip available and that caused me a few problems, as did the strong wind through some of the turns.

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2006 Spanish GP Kawasaki Nakano

Image credit: Reuters

"I didn't feel so comfortable when hard on the brakes today either, which meant I had to brake earlier than normal for some of the faster corners," he added. "So, while I could quite easily follow Marco Melandri and Casey Stoner, it wasn't possible to pass them on the brakes.

"Passing on the straights wasn't an option either, as we are still a little bit down on outright top speed compared to some of the others," he concluded. "

For Nakano's Kawasaki teammate, Randy de Puniet, his MotoGP race debut was a short one. The 25-year-old Frenchman was forced to pull out after just eight laps as a result of an injury he sustained earlier in the day following a highside in the morning warm-up.

"I was struggling out there with my injured hand; I just didn't have the power to brake as hard as I needed to," he said. "And then, eight laps in, I lost the front at the fast right-hander at the end of the lap and ran straight off at 240 km/h."

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