Q+A with Hiroshi Yamada - Bridgestone Motorsport - Manager Motorcycle Sport
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Mar 29, 2007
The sheer competitiveness of the MotoGP field at last weekend’s Jerez GP made it extremely tight at the top of the timesheets with just half-a-second separating the top twelve in qualifying and less than five seconds splitting race winner Valentino Rossi from fifth-placed Bridgestone-shod rider Casey Stoner. The top Bridgestone rider was Honda Gresini’s Toni Elias who spectacularly charged up to fourth place having started from eighth on the grid.
How satisfied are you with tyre performance during the Jerez GP weekend?
“In terms of the performance of our tyres, I think we can be very pleased, even if the end results from the weekend are somewhat disappointing. After the three free practice sessions over Friday and Saturday morning, we had five of our riders in the top seven of the combined standings and the tyres had shown good consistency over many laps. Qualifying was incredibly competitive and we only missed out on pole by just over a tenth-of-a-second, but that time, set by Casey Stoner, was only good enough for fifth place. In the race itself, our tyres were quick and consistent over the full 27 laps of the race and in the closing stages Toni and Casey were lapping over half-a-second quicker than everyone else. Although we missed out on the podium, we derived great satisfaction from the level of performance from our tyres in the race. ”
