Konica Minolta Honda enjoys wet Jerez test.

The Konica Minolta Honda Team and rider Shinya Nakano enjoyed a very productive wet test session at the Jerez circuit following the weekend's GP there.

The rainy conditions allowed Nakano to try Michelin's wet-weather tyres for the first time. Coming back to use the French tyres in 2007, Team and rider were glad to adjust the test schedule with the different weather conditions. Nakano - who led the wet Australian Grand Prix for a number of laps last year - was sitting near the top of the standings during most of the day when the track was completely flooded. The former 250cc championship runner up completed a total of 54 laps setting a best time of 1min 2.212secs.

Nakano qualified seventh for the weekend's Spanish GP and eventually came home in 10th place.

"It has been a very interesting and positive test in these wet conditions. Rain tyres of different brands can have a completely different character and feel, so after many seasons on Bridgestones, it was good to try the Michelins. Although I prefer to ride and race in the dry, I enjoyed riding today in the wet very much and could feel the grip from both the front and rear. As a result, I could get some really good lap times in, which has been very good for my confidence," said Nakano.

"The feeling I had from the bike and the tyres in the wet was very good and that's the sort of feeling we're after from the bike in dry conditions, too. Once I have found a setting to give me the same feeling then I know we will go much faster," he said.

"Today we compared both the 2006 and 2007 Michelin wet tyres so that was a very useful exercise in itself. Obviously for the conditions our settings at both the front and rear are much softer for the wet, but we did try many different settings and combinations to analyse and give us some ideas of what we could try for the dry. We still have a small chattering problem from the front-end, but I'm more confident thanks to being near the top of the timing sheets for most of the day," he concluded.

Giulio Bernardelle, Technical Director was equally pleased with the wet test results, "This was a good first test in full wet conditions and the result was very good. We tested for around four hours in total, running continuously from 12.30pm. It was good that all the major teams were here, which gave us a good yardstick to measure ourselves against."

As well as tyre testing the team look at other areas as Bernardelle went on to explain, "We also tested some settings, in particular, for gearbox and suspensions. It was a normal job but it allowed us to define a good base set up to be used when we will find these conditions during the season."

"We were pleased as Shinya had a particularly good feeling from the tyres, even with the front. So much so, that the problem we've had in the dry in the first part of the corner seems not to be present in the wet with wet settings. This meant that Shinya was at one point the quickest Michelin rider for a while. As the track began to dry at the end of the day we decided to stop while our rider was in 6th position overall," he finished.

The next round of the 2007 MotoGP World Championship takes place in Istanbul, Turkey in just over three weeks time on April 22nd.