Bridgestone rubber helps decrease Brno MotoGP race time as Stoner wins

Casey Stoner clinched his sixth victory at Brno on Sunday following an early battle with teammate Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo. Pedrosa crashed out of the lead on the third lap, leaving the remaining two steps of the podium to be fought over by Andrea Dovizioso, who finished second, and Marco Simoncelli who secured his first podium in the premier class. Every rider on the grid used the softer option rear tyre for the race, and almost all riders used the harder option front. The only riders who didn’t were Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista, who was chasing down Valentino Rossi for sixth position when he crashed out, and Lorenzo, who led early on before crossing the finish line fourth ahead of his Yamaha teammate Ben Spies.

Tohru Ubukata – general manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department commented that the quicker race time, in the absence of certain other variables, had shown off the development of Bridgestone’s MotoGP rubber: “Today the climate conditions were almost the same as last year and tyre choice was also the same but today’s race time was six seconds faster than in 2010 which shows the development progress of the teams and their bikes and also the high level of the competition. I am happy with tyre performance today as durability was good and the times were consistent. This weekend the new tyre regulations came into effect and I can say that feedback from riders and teams is positive.”

Hiroshi Yamada, manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department said: “Casey rode a fantastic race today, lapping remarkably consistently to build a lead that until his last lap was over seven seconds, so my congratulations to him and the Repsol Honda Team. It is of course a great shame for Dani after his performance during the last two days, and for Álvaro as he and Suzuki have been showing a lot of promise here. We saw some good battles between Andrea and Marco and also Jorge until the closing stages of the race, and of course it is good to see Marco achieve his first podium in MotoGP. Brno is always a popular race and it demonstrates the strength and appeal of the championship that 155,400 spectators came to the circuit today.”