LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami continued his re-adaptation to the RC213V on the third and final day of the official Sepang test at Malaysia on Sunday.
But the Japanese realised that physically, that was not it yet. He was only able to complete 126 laps, up from 176 in the same test in 2019. His fastest time, 1.59.860, is 7 tenths slower than his personal best on the Malaysian circuit.
“It’s been quite a tough three days for me. Of course, the physical condition of the right shoulder is not the best, but it’s getting a little better day by day.” Nakagami said.
“The first day there was a lot of pain, but the second day and third day were better and today we were able to get close to 50 laps.
“Still the lap time is not the best and we have to improve that, but we were able to test many items and it’s quite a positive result for the feeling of the bike.” Nakagami added.
Nakagami will spend the next few days in Japan, where he will have time to rest and continue his rehabilitation. He will be back on track at the Losail test, in Qatar from February 22 to 24.
“Now I’m going back to Japan for close to two weeks, so I’ll try to get some rest and hopefully be a little bit better for the Qatar test.” Nakahami said.
“We still have a lot of work to do and things to improve on the bike for my riding style, but let’s see what we do in Qatar.” Nakagami added.
As with Marc Marquez, who also suffers from the shoulder, things have improved: he completed 31 laps on Friday, 47 on Saturday and 48 on Sunday.
“The time is not the best yet and we have to improve on it, but we were able to try many elements and it is rather a positive result for the feeling of the bike.” Marquez said.
Doubts remain, however, and it will be necessary to await his recovery before real conclusions can be drawn.
