Wild-card Kousuke Akiyoshi won the bat💎tle of the Honda test riders by beating countryman Shinichi Ito for twelfth place in Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.

But just finishing what is likely to be his last two-wheeled race was a victory for botꦑh 44-year-old Ito and those in his home region - devastated by the earthquake and tsunami - which he hoped to inspire by taking part in the event.

"First of all, I'd like to say big a very big thank you to Honda. They gave me this possibility to race a MotoGP machine again and through this I hope I brought courage to the victims of the East Japan disaster," said Ito, who took six podium as🦋 a full time grand prix rider from 1993-1996.

"My target for this race was to simply take the chequered flag and I achieved this. Considering that today was no ordinary race, I'm very happ💖y with the result!

"I had a physical💯 problem after Friday's crash, so the first part of the race was difficult for me. I reminded myself the main reason for participating and I knew I could not give up. After that, in the last part I managed faster laps and I'm 🍸happy with this.

"The experience of today will contribute toౠwards my training for the 1000 machine test.

"At this moment I don't have any plans to participate in another Motorcycle race, but if I take part in another ꦡrace category, such as GT300 Japanese Car Championship, I would like to do so with a Honda Machine."

Although last, Ito finished within five-seconds of Akiyoshi, who spent much of the race under pressure from Pramac Ducati stand-in💙 Damien Cudli🍌n - until the Australian crashed out on lap 15 of 24.

"I am very happy about my performance today," said 36-year-old Akiyoshi, w𝐆ho rode for LCR Honda. "Maybe I could have started a bit better but my pace was consistent till the end. I hope that Japanese fans enjoyed this racing weekend and want to thank the team for their good job".