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TOUGH RACEDAY FOR KAWASAKI AT MONZA

Makoto Tamada and Régis Laconi found their early ambitions at Monza not matched by their raceday fortunes, as neither rider managed to finish a race today.

Laconi has a technical problem in race one and then had to start race two from pitlane, after his original machine developed a fault. He was running strongly and looking set for a points score, until he fell on lap seven, at the Parabolica corner.

Tamada had been fourth in first qualifying at Monza, but dropped off the pace near the end, finally crashing. In race two, Tamada was forced to enter the pits and had fuel issues at the fastest track on the calendar.

In the overall championship contest, Tamada is now 16th, Laconi 18th.

Regis Laconi: “We had a problem with the bike in race two on the warm-up lap. I had to change the bike. This morning I broke an engine and in race two we had a problem again with the second bike. I came back to about 14th during the second leg and I tried too hard to catch the riders in front and I made mistake at the Parabolica. We can’t understand why the bike is not fast here and why we have a lack of acceleration. Our engine is normally good in this regard.”

Makoto Tamada: “I had a crash in race one and a fuel problem in race two. We seemed to have lost power from Saturday to Sunday but, really, parts of this weekend have been positive in many ways. We made some real steps in qualifying, and with the general set-up of the whole bike.”

The next round follows in three weeks time, at Miller Motorsports Park in Utah, USA.