MotoGP Motegi Sunday: Bridgestone

Tyre compounds used: Soft, Medium
Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo scored a fantastic victory on Bridgestone’s medium compound tyres. Starting from third on the grid, the Spaniard chased down teammate Valentino Rossi, trading positions with him before taking the lead by lap nine. He was pushed hard to the finish by Rossi, whose fastest lap on the medium Bridgestones came two from the finish on lap 23.

The two Fiat Yamahas were chased throughout by the Repsol Hondas of Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, who finished third and fifth respectively, the top four split by just 1.7 seconds by lap ten. Pedrosa and Rossi traded places on lap 18, whilst Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner recovered from an early slip to seventh to pass Dovizioso for fourth two laps from the finish.

Fifteen riders used Bridgestone’s medium compound front and rear slicks for the race. Ducati Team’s Nicky Hayden, Monster Yamaha Tech3’s James Toseland and Pramac Racing’s Mika Kallio all kept the medium compound front tyre but were the only riders to opt for the soft rear Bridgestone.

The medium compound Bridgestones demonstrated good consistency and durability over a race distance with the highest track temperatures seen this season. Lorenzo recorded his fastest time, and the fastest of the race, on lap 15, whilst Pedrosa’s best effort came on lap 15 and Stoner’s fastest was on lap 20 of the 25 lap race.

Osamu Inoue - Bridgestone Senior Vice President

“I would like to congratulate the Fiat Yamaha Team and Jorge Lorenzo for their excellent victory here today. We are honoured to have been able to support our first Japan Grand Prix as MotoGP’s Official Tyre Supplier. Bridgestone will continue to strive to provide tyres of consistent quality and safety, and a fair tyre service to all teams.”

Tohru Ubukata - Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development

“Today we have seen riders use medium compound front tyres and both soft and medium compound rears, and all specifications showed consistent race performance. We only had one dry session on Friday and it was cold. Track temperature today was over 10 degrees warmer, but with hot and cold and rain we have seen that two compounds of slick and one wet tyre can meet all conditions this weekend so I am happy with our tyre line-up for this race.”

Jorge Lorenzo, Fiat Yamaha, Race Winner
“I did a bad start, fourth after the first lap, but I recovered the distance to Valentino. I had to ride the best I could to the end to stay ahead. I think I need to continue working with the Bridgestone tyres because we are still not fast enough. Friday the tyre that worked better was the soft tyre so today almost every team wanted to use this one, but with the higher temperature almost everyone chose the harder one. It is good to win!”

Top ten classification (Monday 21:00 GMT+3)
Pos. Rider Team Race time Gap Front tyre Rear tyre
1 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha 43m47.238s Medium Medium
2 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha 43m47.542s +1.304s Medium Medium
3 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda 43m51.001s +3.763s Medium Medium
4 Casey Stoner Ducati Team 43m52.929s +5.691s Medium Medium
5 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda 43m56.445s +9.207s Medium Medium
6 Marco Melandri Hayate Racing 44m17.793s +30.555s Medium Medium
7 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki 44m19.994s +32.756s Medium Medium
8 Mika Kallio Pramac Racing 44m26.654s +39.416s Medium Soft
8 James Toseland Monster Yamaha Tech3 44m30.344s +43.106s Medium Soft
10 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki 44m30.483s +43.245a Medium Medium
Weather: Dry. Ambient 22°C; Track 35°C (Bridgestone measurement)