RiderTua.com – LCR Honda rider Takaaki Nakagami also lost grip on the rear wheel. Zarco’s teammate also experienced difficulties. His explanation after the sprint race on Saturday was that a lot of the problems were caused by a lack of grip on the rear wheel.. “We didn’t just lack grip on the rear wheel. Personally, I also lacked a sense of how much of the rear tire was ‘still there’. Because I lost this feeling, I can’t tilt the bike completely.”
Nakagami Loses Grip of Rear Wheel
To overcome the problem and get more feedback from the rear wheel, the team and Taka changed the set-up for Sunday’s race, Nakagami said after the race. “Most importantly, we wanted to improve the grip and sensation on the rear wheel. We managed to do that over a small distance. During the warm-up session, my feeling was the best since the start of the weekend. So we are still preparing for the race.”
“Unfortunately…. I couldn’t start well. I was driving behind Marini and lost a lot of time. When I overtook him, I wanted to catch Joan Mir. My lap time was quite good, consistent, but not extraordinary,” continued Nakagami… While teammate Zarco only managed to break the 1:40 mark twice in the entire race, Nakagami hit 1:39 in 13 of the 25 laps and even clocked 1:38 once.

Honda is still far behind
However, Nakagami suddenly lost 20 seconds due to slipping on the third to last lap. However, he managed to beat his teammate Zarco to the finish.
However, it is difficult for Nakagami to draw positive conclusions after the weekend in Portugal.. “Of course we are still far from where we want to be. We still have a lot of work to do and things we need to improve.. This is the problem. We really lost our way since Friday. We’re slower than last year.”
Just like Yamaha, Honda is also holding many private tests this year thanks to relaxed regulations. Honda tested twice in Jerez (Spain) between race weekends in Qatar and Portugal. After the race weekend in Portugal, Yamaha stayed in Portimao for an extra day to test there on Monday, although it ultimately failed.