Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi and Ducati Corse’s Casey Stoner used Bridgestone’s latest generation rear qualifying tyres to score competitive front row results in this afternoon’s qualifying practice at the Shanghai International Circuit. Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards took pole position.
Rossi will start tomorrow’s Chinese Grand Prix from second on the grid, his second consecutive front row using Bridgestone qualifying tyres, while Stoner enjoys his debut front row of the season in third place. The Rizla Suzuki MotoGP riders were both also on good form this afternoon with Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen in sixth and eighth positions respectively, their best qualifying showing of the season so far.
It is the first time this season that two Bridgestone riders frequent the front row of the grid and, with three teams inside the top six, the results mark a notable improvement in qualifying performance, with a reduced gap to the pole position time.
Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata - Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development
Bridgestone has two riders on the front row, you must be pleased with the results?
“Yes, I am quite happy with the results of this afternoon’s qualifying session. We brought new rear construction qualifying tyres for this race, based on encouraging performances in recent post-race tests, and we were able to see some good improvements compared to qualifying in the first three races of the season. Although we were not able to get pole, we have reduced the gap and have three riders in the top six, which is encouraging.”
Is there more work to be done with this latest spec qualifier?“Thenew qualifying tyre has given us valuable data with which to make further developments with all teams for the future. The gap to pole is still several tenths of a second, but we are making progress. Our best qualifying time at this track last season was 1m59.315 and we were able to significantly improve on this. Not all our teams were able to make big improvements in qualifying, so we will carefully look at the reasons for this, but in race trim I think we can be satisfied with all team performances so far this weekend.”
And race tyres?“We finished our slick race tyre evaluation this afternoon and the performance also seems competitive. The overall grip level from our latest compounds has been good, and the durability and consistency appears to be in line with our targets. For dry conditions, I believe we are ready to race, but the forecast is for a wet race day.”
How would rain affect preparations?
“The important thing ifwe have rain tomorrow would be to have a wet warm-up session to give the teams an opportunity to set up the bikes for the wet conditions. We have several wet weather options available to our teams. Based on standing water levels and track temperatures we would have a good indication of the preferred wet specification to use, but we would benefit from having some wet track time to find the optimum balance between the tyre and the machine prior to the race.”
Bridgestone-shod Riders’ Qualifying Session Results:
Pos. - Rider - Team - Qualifying Time (pos) - Gap to PoleP2. Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha Team 1m58.494s +0.355s
P3. Casey Stoner - Ducati Corse 1m58.591s +0.452s
P6. Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m58.941s +0.802s
P8. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m59.325s +1.186s
P12. Marco Melandri - Ducati Corse 1m59.678s +1.539s
P13. Shinya Nakano - San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m59.716s +1.577s
P14. John Hopkins - Kawasaki Racing Team 1m59.740s +1.601s
P15. Toni Elias - Alice Team 1m59.933s +1.794s
P16. Alex de Angelis - San Carlo Honda Gresini 2m00.316s +2.177s
P17. Sylvain Guintoli - Alice Team 2m00.760s +2.621s
P18. Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing Team 2m00.838s +2.699s
Weather: Dry – Air 30°C, Track 47°C (Bridgestone measurement)
