FRENCH GP DEBRIEF: Q+A WITH TOHRU UBUKATA
Friday 23 May 2008 Bridgestone-shod Valentino Rossi took his second consecutive MotoGP victory of this highly competitive 2008 season at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, France last weekend, to lead the riders’ championship by three points afterfive rounds.

Ducati’s Casey Stoner was unfortunate not to add another podium result to his 2008 account having been forced toconcede third position due to engine trouble. Stoner was on competitive form all weekend, consistently among thefront runners in practice and was also the top Bridgestone rider in qualifying, claiming his second consecutive frontrow position with third place.

Last year’s Le Mans victor, Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen, proved as competitive in the dry as he is in the wet by claiminga strong fifth position, his best result of the year so far. Suzuki’s strong showing was supported by Vermeulen’steam-mate Loris Capirossi who battled to seventh position.

Many of Bridgestone’s teams were able to set encouraging lap times over the course of the weekend, demonstratingthe continued improvements by the tyre manufacturer since the start of the season, as the championship enters itsbusiest phase with seven races in ten weekends.

Q+A with Tohru Ubukata - Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager Motorcycle Race Tyre Development

Were you satisfied with the performance of the Bridgestone race tyres in Le Mans
“The Le Mans weekend was quite positive for us because, generally, we could see a competitive and consistentperformance from our race tyres over the course of the weekend. I think it was one of the most evenly fought raceweekends of the season so far in terms of bike and tyre performance and we saw three different bike-tyrecombinations take the top five positions. Valentino’s win was incredible; he and his crew did a great job. It was a goodoverall result for Yamaha with a podium clean sweep, but we are naturally pleased that the top placed Yamaha wason Bridgestone tyres. Casey and Ducati also demonstrated a pleasing return to top form and were unfortunate not toscore a podium. With the Suzuki team also fighting for top five positions, we could see many encouragingperformances.”

It seems that Bridgestone still has a deficit in terms of qualifying performance?
“Casey did a good job in qualifying to claim his second front row of the season, but we are still chasing the first poleof the year. Casey thought he could have challenged for the pole position, but third place was still a good result in thecircumstances. Our rivals continue to show impressive pace in qualifying trim but we are working hard to reduce thegap. Of course, as we make improvements, so too do our rivals, therefore we need to make even bigger developmentsteps to make up ground.”

Has Bridgestone found any significant improvement for its qualifying tyres?
“For Le Mans, we used our most recent qualifying spec, which was first used in China, and we had four riders on thefirst three rows. Although I feel better about our qualifying performance in general, it is still not enough. We used thepost-race test session to continue development in this area, and I think we found some more interesting results witha new construction rear qualifier, which I hope will benefit our riders in Mugello and Catalunya, the next two events onthe calendar. Qualifying is not always the most critical part of the weekend, especially at good overtaking circuits, butit would still be helpful for our riders to start higher up the grid to avoid getting caught in the midfield battle through thefirst corners.”

What other items did Bridgestone evaluate in the Le Mans test?
“In addition to the work on qualifying tyres, we evaluated a new specification rear race tyres both new constructionand new compound. Our point of focus was on enhancing edge grip, and many riders gave us positive feedback onthis tyre, which will help further development back in Japan. With so many races in a short space of time betweennow and Laguna Seca in July, it is important for us to keep up a competitive rate of development to allow all our teamsand riders to fight for the top positions.”