Australian riders Casey Stoner and Chris Vermeulen were the top performing Bridgestone-shod riders in the opening two practice sessions for Sunday’s Australian GP after a mixed day of weather conditions at Phillip Island.
Stoner led the way in this morning’s dry and sunny session with a massive 0.670s advantage over his nearest challenger Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi. Rossi, who clinched the 2008 MotoGP crown with a win at Motegi last Sunday, was in turn three-tenths clear of San Carlo Honda Gresini man Alex De Angelis who completed an all-Bridgestone top three in the dry conditions.
As clouds gathered over the island, rain made yet another unwelcome visit to a MotoGP weekend this season in time for the afternoon practice session, which saw Chris Vermeulen take top Bridgestone rider honours in third position for Suzuki behind wet pace-setter Nicky Hayden and second-placed Andrea Dovizioso. It was very much a day of two halves but with six riders in the top ten in both sessions, Bridgestone’s Australian GP preparations have started solidly.
The Phillip Island track is renowned for its technical complexity with the dominance of fast left-hand corners placing a firm emphasis on performance and durability on that side of the tyre. Bridgestone hopes for improved track conditions for tomorrow’s practice and qualifying session as it works to extract a performance level from its tyres similar to that seen in last year’s Australian event in which Ducati riders Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi took a 1-2 finish.
Tyre Talk with Shinji Aoki - Bridgestone Motorsport – Assistant Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre DevelopmentWhat did Bridgestone look at in this morning’s dry session?“In this morning’s dry session we got immediately to work looking at several different compounds for this track, and we could quickly find a good direction. This circuit is probably the most severe in the world for the left-hand side of the tyre, so we must carry out some longer runs tomorrow to assess the durability. Today, the wear appearance from the tyres was as expected but the heating process in the tyre is different on non-consecutive runs. When the rider pits in, the tyre naturally starts to cool down, but when completing consecutive laps the heat is prolonged over a greater period of time and affects the tyre much more. This is our main focus and challenge for this track, which is why an analysis over longer runs will be so important.”
Are there any concerns over wet weather tyre pace?“The track’s characteristics affect wet tyres in exactly the same way as the slicks on the left-hand side of the tyre. This afternoon, our wet weather tyres generally need a few laps to reach the optimum temperature, but then showed a good level of consistency. We could of course try to find a better lap time by using softer specification wets, but we must consider the durability over the complete race distance. As typical for this season, the rain is following us wherever we go, but hopefully this will make way for better weather tomorrow and Sunday.”
Bridgestone-shod Riders’ Combined Practice Session ResultsPos. - Rider - Team - Session 1 (pos) - Session 2 (pos) - GapP1. Casey Stoner - Ducati Corse 1m30.094s (P1) 1m40.585s (P4) Fastest
P2. Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha Team 1m30.764s (P2)1m40.892s (P6) +0.670s
P3. Alex de Angelis - San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m31.043s (P3)1m42.408s (P11)+0.949s
P6. Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda Team 1m31.161s (P6) 1m41.638s (P8) +1.067s
P7. Shinya Nakano - San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m31.221s (P7)1m43.248s (P15)+1.127s
P9. Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m31.248s (P9) 1m43.937s (P16)+1.154s
P13. Sylvain Guintoli - Alice Team 1m31.532s (P13) 1m40.948s (P7) +1.438s
P14. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m31.719s (P14)1m39.824s (P3) +1.625s
P15. Marco Melandri - Ducati Corse 1m31.803s (P15)1m44.509s (P18)+1.709s
P16. John Hopkins - Kawasaki Racing Team 1m31.814s (P16)1m43.221s (P14) +1.720s
P17. Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing Team 1m32.211s (P17)1m42.905s (P12)+2.117s
P18. Toni Elias - Alice Team1m32.415s (P18) 1m41.788s (P9) +2.321s
Weather:Session 1: Dry – Air 21°C, Track 27°C (Bridgestone measurement)
Session 2: Wet – Air 14°C, Track 14°C (Bridgestone measurement)
