Tamada returns, wants pay back.

After sustaining a fracture to his wrist following a fall during qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix - and after sitting out Shanghai as a result - Makoto Tamada will make his Konica Minolta Honda return at this weekend's French Grand Prix at Le Mans.

Tamada had a titanium pin 15mm long inserted into the broken bone to join the pieces together on April 27th at the Showa University Northern Yokohoma Hospital in Japan, drastically reducing his healing time and allowing him to ride this weekend.

"I'm ready to get back on the track," declared Tamada. "I still feel pain but I hope that day after day the situation will get better and I'm trustful that I will be able to fight for the positions that count.

"If I didn't feel I had the opportunity to compete with the best, than I would have probably taken a different decision and maybe I would have postponed my comeback on the RC211V.

"I feel like I haven't paid back the team for what they have built for me in just a few months, therefore this will give me extra energies for the rest of the season. Now we have to move and do what we are able," concluded the 2004 race winner.

Whilst Tamada was recovering, Luca Montiron's team enjoyed a great performance by replacement rider Jurgen van den Goorbergh, who finished a highly credible sixth at the Chinese MotoGP.