MotoGP Motegi Saturday: Bridgestone

Tyre compounds used: Wet tyre (soft compound)
It seems MotoGP is unable to escape the weather so far this season as the qualifying session in Motegi was cancelled after heavy rain left the Twin Ring Motegi circuit submerged in places. The rain hit in time for this morning’s practice session, meaning that all riders used Bridgestone’s wet tyres in their first competitive outing this season. Whilst it was wet for a time during the Qatar test in March, and it rained again during the official IRTA pre-season test in Jerez, today is the first time that all riders took to the track with a wet setup.

The Bridgestone wets performed well in the morning’s session, but several hours of rain left the track submerged in places, resulting in the afternoon’s qualifying session being cancelled for MotoGP, 250cc and 125cc classes. As a result, tomorrow’s race will start based on the fastest times from both practice sessions, which means the order will be taken from yesterday’s dry first practice.

Tohru Ubukata - Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development
“I am quite happy with our wet tyre performance today, as even in the cold conditions our soft compound wet tyre worked from the beginning to the end of the session. There was a reasonable amount of water standing on the circuit and it was also quite cold, at 11 degrees Celsius, so these were very tough conditions for the tyre.

“It is the first real wet test we have had this year, and before this we were basically only going from the Jerez test result. There was constant rain all through the session, but our wet tyre worked quite well so about this I am quite happy.”

Top ten from free practice 2 (Saturday 10:05 – 10:50 GMT+9)
1 Colin Edwards Yamaha Tech3 2m01.841s
2 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha 2m01.893s +0.052s
3 Casey Stoner Ducati Team 2m02.497s +0.656s
4 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha 2m03.007s +1.166s
5 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki 2m03.427s +1.586s
6 Nicky Hayden Ducati Team 2m03.723s +1.882s
7 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda 2m04.136s +2.295s
8 Sete Gibernau Francisco Hernando 2m04.454s +2.613s
9 Randy de Puniet LCR Honda 2m04.469s +2.628s
10 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda 2m04.489s +2.648s

Weather: Wet. Ambient 11°C; Track 12°C (MotoGP official timing)

Top ten race starting positions (taken from free practice one)
1 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha 1m48.545s
2 Casey Stoner Ducati Team 1m48.601s +0.056s
3 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha 1m48.965s +0.420s
4 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki 1m49.382s +0.837s
5 Colin Edwards Yamaha Tech3 1m49.697s +1.152s
6 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki 1m49.980s +1.435s
7 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda 1m50.030s +1.485s
8 Marco Melandri Hayate Racing 1m50.123s +1.578s
9 Toni Elias San Carlo Honda 1m50.209s +1.664s
10 James Toseland Yamaha Tech3 1m50.342s +1.797s