The crash suffered by Takaaki Nakagami at Motegi on Friday carries a significant degree of drama, both for the rider and for Honda, which has seen the development of next year's MotoGP prototype seriously compromised.
Nakagami was due to contest what was very likely to have been his final wild-card outing, given that the exemptions allowing test riders to return to racing will be banned from next year onwards. That opportunity to bid farewell to his home fans, however, lasted just a handful of corners, as he negotiated a track made particularly treacherous by the rain that had fallen beforehand.
