By David Miller
Paul Bird Kawasaki's Makoto Tamada has said he can see a top-ten finish at this weekend's Imola World Superbike round with the possibility of a top-five or even a podium on the cards.
Tamada, who is 100 per cent fit following his crashes at Brno and the Nurburgring, reckons that if his ZX-10R works as well in Italy as it did at the previous two rounds, he could be challenging for big points.
"The test went well earlier in the season at Imola and I am pretty confident about the circuit. We were still relatively behind the leaders in terms of lap times at the test, but the bike feeling has improved significantly since then and I was confident on the race set-up at Nurburgring but unfortunately the crash in race one took me out of both races," said the Japanese rider.
"I have no significant injury and my broken finger from Brno is healed so I am 100% fit for Imola. If the bike works well as it did in Brno and Nurburgring, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R should finish in an easy top ten. I guess it depends on me if we can finish in the top five, or even on the podium."
