Moto2 winner Tetsuta Nagashima to make Honda MotoGP race debut
Nagashima spent five seasons in the Moto2 class, 🔯winning the 2020 Qatar season opener for the Red Bull Ajo team, then finishing runner-up at r꧟ound two in Jerez.
However no furꦯther podiums followed and, after finishing a career-best eighth in the world championship, Nagashima announced he would be&nb𒅌sp;missing from the 2021 grid.
Nagashima then became a HRC test rider and competed in this year's Suzuka 8 H𒊎ours alongside Takumi Tﷺakahashi and Iker Lecuona, putting the team on pole position and contributing to Honda’s first Suzuka victory since 2014.
“I will be competing in the premier MotoGP class, which I have dreamed of since I was a child,” said Nagashima. “It is only a wild-card entry for one race, but I will do my very best, and show my appreciation to HRC for giving me this opportunity with 𓂃good results.
“In the Suzuka 8 Hours, everything went well from testing throug♍hout race week and we won, so I’ll keep this momentum going into the Grand Prix of Japan.
“I feel that through conducting development tests as an HRC rider this year, my skills as a rider are improv✃ing, so I hope everyone will see how Tetsuta ꦺNagashima rides now.
“I’ll do my best, so I hope everyone at the track, and spectators watching TV,🧸 will cheer for me.”
Nagashima will be 🍌the third home rider o♋n the MotoGP grid at Motegi alongside LCR Honda regular Takaaki Nakagami and Suzuki wild-card Takuya Tsuda.
Pet💮er has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at🔯 the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
