Takaaki Nakagami recovered from a big turn one crash on Friday that saw him skip FP4 and miss most of Sunday warm up, to claim tenth place during t𝄹he Portimao MotoGP race. 

It was also the 💞Japanese rider’s first points of the 2021 season so far after a double no scor🔥e in Doha.

"Physically it was absolutely tough. Yesꦆterday I decided to skip FP4 and qualifying and I was thinking🐈 let's try to race," said the LCR Honda rider. 

"During warm-up I actually felt better than in FP3, so after the warm-up I decided to race. but♚ it was tough. 

"Of course the physical condition was not the best and I didn’t expect to finish🐼 in the top ten. So it was a good day for me and a good performance."

Nakagami was the third Honda rider to score their first points of the year at Portimao, as the returning Marc ꦗMarquez, and team-mate Alex Marquez finished seventh and eighth. 

During the𒉰 race, Nakagami was able to come through the lower points scoring places before holding off Maverick Vinales over the line. 

Speaking about his condition during the race, the 29 year-old alluded to struggling๊ in the braking zone and controlling the bike due to the pain.

Nakagami said: "I struggled to hold on to the bike ꦦunder braking, everything was really tough and it was a really hard race.

“Thanks to the Clinica Mobile doctors and also my team. Let's keep moving for Jerez. Fo♏r sure my physical condition will be better so I'm really looking forward."

With Jere🔯z up next and Honda back to full strength f🅠or the first time in nine months, Nakagami was happy with the ‘decision to race’, but also to have Marc Marquez return in order to further improve the bike.

Nakagami added: "Definitely we need to improve the bike for Jerez. I'm pretty happy with my decision to race because we got a lot of da𒐪ta from the race, and for Honda Marc [Marquez] came back. 🌜;

"So now they have comments from Marc, al🦄so Alex [Marquez], me, and Pol. So step-by-step we are a team and we need to develop the bike."