MotoGP – Nakagami “I could’ve won the race”

Takaaki Nakagami was one of the riders who fell victim to the red flag in the race one at Styria, reflecting on this he felt he could’ve won the race.

Following an overtake on Jack Miller for second place, Nakagami had 12 laps to try and catch and overtake Joan Mir for the race win, sadly, he never got this due to the red flag.

After starting from second place, Nakagami felt he was on for his debut podium on the 2019 RC213V, “In the race one, I had everything under control and it was easy to stay with the front group with Joan and Jack. I was really calm staying behind jack to save fuel and my tyres for the end of the race.”

“14 laps to go jack was making a gap so I tried to overtake, after a few laps I felt that maybe I can win the race as the lap time is there and I felt really good on the bike.”

This, unfortunately, came to an end following tyre issues which also stuck Joan Mir who did not have a backup tyre, “We did not have a backup tyre for the second race so had to use the same [as race one], everyone else had new tyres so they had a bit more grip everywhere, race 2 was not our race but I gave my best. I am very disappointed to finish P7 but this is the race.”

Reflecting on the race weekend and looking ahead to Misano, Nakagami can take some positives, “I am pretty happy for the weekend, [I was] really strong, let’s see in Misano and hopefully we can show we are a top team and top rider. This is really positive.”

Nakagami was the only Honda rider to score points in this race.

Featured image – www.motogp.com