Change of style pays off for Nakano

The Konica Minolta Honda rider was a disastrous 19th in yesterday's second practice session, but leapt to seventh on the grid - just 0.230 seconds from pole - this afternoon.

"Overnight the team explained what my problem has been," said Nakano.

"I think that maybe I was pushing too hard in some areas. From the data and by following some of the top guys I could see that something was missing from my technique with this new 800cc bike.

"I was losing a little confidence, but then I could see that I was entering the corners way too fast and then as a result I could not get on the throttle early enough.

"As soon as I stopped trying so hard and relaxed a little the times improved."

"We realised how to get the best from our technical package and for Shinya this meant not being so aggressive and hard on the brakes and using a little more throttle from mid-corner," explained the team's technical director Giulio Bernardelle.

Konica Minolta team manager Gianluca Montiron believes that Nakano will keep progressing now that he has grasped the style required for the new 800cc bikes.

"We are more satisfied than yesterday, that's for sure!" said Montiron.

"I think this result is a combination of Shinya improving and also getting used to the machine and tyre package that he has at his disposal.

"We're hoping that we're starting to see some of Shinya's huge potential on this new Honda RC212V."

Nakano joined Konica Minolta for 2007 after three seasons with Kawasaki.