Nakano hopeful of step forward

The Konica Minolta rider, who has struggled for pace for most of the season, finished down in 16th place after suffering from the lower than expected temperatures at the Ricardo Tormo circuit.

But with higher temperatures expected tomorrow, Nakano is hopeful of taking a step forward and fight closer to the top.

"Yet again we've had some low temperatures during the first day of practice, although this afternoon conditions were a little better," said Nakano. "We tried four different tyres today - one or two were not so bad even if overall our position is not so good in 16th.

"That shows just how close it is again. The positive point is that I didn't have any big problems today. I tried to follow some of the other guys and see where I was losing time and I could see it was on the exit of the turns.

"Tomorrow we will make some alterations to improve our rear-end grip as this is important at such a technical track where you need to get out of the turns well to get into the next corner.

"I enjoy this place, I look back and have some good memories from Valencia - especially in the 250 class - so tomorrow I want to be much higher up."