Poor home race disappoints Nakano

Nakano's Konica Minolta team had been desperate to turn a poor season around with a good result at Motegi - the home track for their title sponsor as well as Nakano and bike supplier Honda.

But although he ran as high as eighth in the wet part of the race, Nakano faded on slick tyres and finished outside the points.

"I am disappointed that my home Grand Prix has ended this way," he said.

"The race started full wet, but it was soon beginning to dry and I saw some riders pitting. I was going to pit, but the Michelin wet tyres were working well in the drying conditions.

"I maybe could have pitted a couple of laps earlier, but when I eventually changed bikes there were still some damp parts of the track and I couldn't push hard. I found it hard to get feedback from the harder compound slick tyres, which made it a difficult race for me.

"It's hard to accept a result like this at my home GP, but I now have to look forward to the final three races."

Team boss Gianluca Montiron reckoned Nakano's pit stop timing had been fine, but was disappointed by the problems in the second half of the race - and felt Nakano could have pushed harder early on.

"With these conditions at the beginning of the race, you can see the riders spend a little time to understand the conditions and I think we lost a little bit of time in the early laps," Montiron said.

"Within two or three laps Shinya was more consistent and he began to get into a good rhythm. When the track dries out, it's the rider who has to decide when to enter the pits to change to the dry set-up bike and I think Shinya came in at about the right time.

"After he went out on the bike with slicks he needed a few laps to understand the feeling and feedback from the machine, but he didn't get a good feeling from our technical package today in these difficult conditions, so this is the reason for our performance.

"We are all obviously disappointed as our expectations were higher as we look on this race as another 'home' Grand Prix in front of our sponsor."