Nakano 'much happier' than last year

The 30-year-old's best finish of the season so is a ninth place at Jerez, but while the former factory Kawasaki rider says the results may not yet show it, he feels he is finally making progress with the Honda RC212V.

"It's been a tough start to the season, but for me much better than last year," he said.

"Last year was, to be honest, a disaster. Also I still can't ride 100% [the way I want to] after switching from Kawasaki to Honda.

"I don't know what is the main problem, but last year I had communication problems.

"Because though I had a Japanese engineer, which helped in some ways, even speaking in Japanese it was difficult to understand each other!

"But at Gresini I'm finding it much easier to work and I have a good engineer, and though so far [there are] no good results, I am enjoying the riding."

Nakano believes that Gresini need to improve the Honda before they are capable of returning to the front, but added that he was optimistic new Bridgestone tyres will help him when MotoGP returns to Europe, at Le Mans, on May 18.

"I know I need something, not one or two steps but even more," he said. "After Estoril I tested a different Bridgestone tyre and I could see a big improvement.

"For this race it will just be different compounds, but I know I will be let have something more for Le Mans."