Taka in the top 10 on the first day in Aragon

Takaaki Nakagami ended the opening day of free practice for the Grand Prix of Aragon inside the top-10 at the MotorLand Aragon circuit. The LCR Honda IDEMITSU rider will make his 200th GP appearance in north-east Spain this weekend – becoming the first Japanese rider to reach the landmark – and made a solid start as he secured P9 in the combined times on Friday.

Having claimed his maiden MotoGP pole at the venue last season, Taka headed into FP1 in confident mood and was challenging for the leading positions in the early stages. He eventually had to settle for ninth, but improved by almost a second and a half in a competitive FP2 session to take eighth and leave himself well-placed overnight.

Takaaki Nakagami – 9th, (1’48.057): “It was a good start for us today and we had a good feeling on the bike so far. The track condition this morning wasn’t great, but it improved in FP2 as there was more rubber on the track so everyone was able to improve their lap time. So I’m really looking forward to tomorrow in FP3 and the qualifying sessions, we need to stay in the top 10 in FP3 and be ready for Q2.”