Warm-up crash hampers Nakano's race

Although Nakano was not injured in the incident, the Japanese driver admitted that his confidence was affected. He had qualified a competitive seventh, but slipped down the order in the race and eventually finished 10th.

"My warm-up crash happened when I tried to carry more speed into the corner and lost the front," Nakano explained.

"I made a good start in the race, but after a crash it's not so easy to push so hard from the beginning, so I lost a few places.

"When I started to get a better feeling from the bike, I tried to push harder again but we were having some chattering problems from the front."

Konica Minolta technical director Giulio Bernardelle now suspects that major changes will have to be made in order for Nakano to get to grips with the team's bike.

"We know that the set-up is not perfect for Shinya's riding style as he still asking for more speed in the first part of the corner," said Bernardelle.

"Now we need to start to work on this point and to do this we need to look at the front tyre and our machine settings.

"It may also be possible to ask Michelin for a tyre more suited to Shinya's needs. We have discussed this with Michelin but it's a long process."