After some more than deserved holidays Nicky finished on the podium again, although far behind Stoner at the finishing line; the Australian seems to be in a competition on his own.
Arriving at the circuit on the Wednesday we noticed that both Honda and Michelin had not had a break of any type. In the pits there was an evolution of the chassis and engine for Nicky`s bike, and new tyres to test, so from that moment on we expected a weekend with non-stop work After the first training sessions on the Friday, with lap times that were more than acceptable, Nicky felt much more at home with the new material. Once he had decided on the set up he had to choose the tyres.
The surprise came on the Saturday afternoon: after having worked and classed the pace that we had for the race as ‘good’ Nicky got his best grid classification so far this season. He was in second position, confirming even more the fact that he felt right with the new material that both Honda and Michelin had provided. On the Sunday, with a decent start, he was in the leading group without having had to waste energy or push the bike to reach the end of the race, and with a chance of fighting for the coveted podium. Although it did not seem so, because of the few overtakings that occurred, Nicky got off his bike saying how difficult it had been to try and follow the pace set by the Bridgestone tyres and to finish third. But he knows that nobody has ever told him that the MotoGP category was easy.After a short break to enjoy the fruits of the last race, we were working again.
We had two days of training where we could not lose a single second, and Nicky knows that by working hard things get better. Because even though the World Championship is out of his reach there are qute a few races left and after the two days of testing we think a win is getting closer by the day.
