Dovizioso was outclassed by team-mate Dani Pedrosa in his maiden season with the Repsol Honda team this year, finishing 74 points behind the Spaniard.

The Italian silenced his critics with a superb ride to victory in the rain at Donington Park, but that was as good as his season got, with no further podiums achieved.

The 23-year-old finished fourth on no less than six occasions, however, indicating that he was usually there or thereabouts in the races, but Nakamoto has warned he needs to deliver on his promise to justify his place in the team.

“We need something more from him,” Nakamoto told www.motorcyclenews.com.

“I’m a little bit disappointed by his results. He has the talent but he’s not been able to use it.”

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The Spanish star, who has a good record at Valencia, was just under half a second off pace man Casey Stoner’s hot lap of 1’32.813 in the hour-long opening practice and also trailed fellow Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo on the timesheet. He later explained that a race victory in front of the home fans to end the season would mean more to him than overcoming Stoner in the standings at the final round of the 2009 season.

”For a first practice session, this was OK today and we completed some valuable laps to familiarise ourselves with this circuit again,” said the man from Barcelona. “It was really windy out there and this affected the machine more in some corners than others – like in the third sector where it was quite difficult to control the bike. Still, we have time to solve this tomorrow. Also, it’s good that we got used to the windy conditions because it looks like we’ll have them for the whole weekend.”

“The track surface was not totally clean,” Pedrosa continued. “But actually the grip was good and the Bridgestone tyres were working well. There’s a gap to the riders in front and we need to make some improvements for tomorrow so that we’ve got the best chance of qualifying well. I really want to win this race – it’s more important to me than finishing third in the championship – so we need to work really hard to give us a good chance on Sunday.”

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Source: MotoGp