Bridgestone congratulates Yamaha for success in Iveco TT Assen Grand Prix – MotoGP news
Manager Bridgestone Motorsports Department Hiroshi Yamada and Assistant to Director Motorsports Tyre Development Division Hirohide Hamashima have congratulated Yamaha for their success in the recently held Assen Grand Prix.
Yamada said, “This is a fantastic win for Ben, especially during Yamaha’s 50th anniversary celebrations, so I’d like to congratulate his team and Yamaha for their performance today. He becomes the tenth rider to have taken a premier class win on Bridgestone
tyres and it is good to have a new race winner in MotoGP.”
Yamada also added that the race day was very tough for riders as well as the tyres. He discussed the temperatures faced in all races in the 2011 season were comparatively lower than last season’s races.
The situation became even worse when rain interrupted the event and caused the temperatures to fall significantly. It made the track more slippery. Considering the sides of optimum race line, the track was clearly damp. The riders chose to put soft compound
tyres for the race, which would have been rather easy to warm up in the conditions.
The weather was not complementing the race. The rain interrupted the 125cc and Moto2 races. With MotoGP riders on the circuit the track was dry bit but not to a perfect level. It was a difficult choice for the riders to choose the tyres. While Marco Simoncelli
and Karel Abraham went for hard compound tyres, others went for softer ones.
Hirohide Hamashima said, “The conditions today were cold and damp in places which meant that almost all riders used the softer option front and rear slicks. The soft compound front was used for its improved warm-up performance and grip with the low temperature,
but the compromise of this means that tyre wear was therefore higher.”
Hamashima revealed that some riders were experiencing tyre wear out with small chips erosion. British Cal Crutchlow was facing the same issue as he was not content with the grip and preferred to return to avoid any crash and got a new front tyre for his
M1.
Considering the performance of the Assen GP winner Ben Spies, it proves that his rear tyre was performing well with the circuit conditions. Although some riders crashed out in the first lap but still the left side was working well.
Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso complained that his RCV was vibrating at the rear end. Further examination of the bike revealed that the tyre was not the cause for vibrations, but the chipping of the front tyre from right shoulder could have been the
reason.
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