Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) has been fast through all of preseason, and the Japanese rider got the season off to a good start in the #QatarGP as he came home in third to take his first podium of the year. An expected title contender, the result is a solid start in a difficult race weekend - with consistency usually the key to the crown.
Now Nakagami aims to repeat the feat in Argentina – or go one or two better, with key rivals Franco Morbidelli (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS) and Tom Lüthi (CarXpert Interwetten) having also started the year on the rostrum.
Takaaki Nakagami, P3: “The race was quite tough from the beginning because Franco tried to go away and I knew that he had a little it extra – maybe two or three tenths faster than me. So from the beginning I was thinking it was very difficult but I tried to keep calm and overtake Alex, then I tried to follow tom but it was always the same gap. Then Miguel caught me, so it was very difficult concentrate - but finally we got the first podium so good stuff. The first race we got that, so we’ll try and keep going this way or try and take the victory next time.”