With much of the Portuguese Grand Prix weekend washed out, the challenge for riders was always going to be how well they coped with using slicks for the first time in unhelpful conditions on the Sunday afternoon race. Tohru Ubukata, manager of Bridgestone’s Motorcycle Tyre Development Department discussed the challenge for the tyre supplier after the race: “On Sunday for the race the challenge was for the slick tyres, which were being used for the first time during the weekend. The track conditions were very slippery and greasy because of all the rain and no dry running and the teams and riders had no time to work on their dry setups, and this situation always makes it very demanding for the tyres. Still, even considering this our slick tyres performed well and offered good warm-up performance which we knew would be important here.”