Q. How would you assess the back-to-back races in Mugello and Catalunya
Tohru Ubukata - Manager Motorcycle Race Tyre Development: "We enter a tough period of the season with lots of back-to-back races at circuits where our rivals have traditionally been competitive, so the results of Mugello and Catalunya were quite satisfying. Mugello is one of the few tracks where we have never seen a rider on our tyres take victory, so the fact we could enjoy our first one-two of the season with Valentino winning and Casey in second was a great result."
What influence did the weather have on race weekend preparations?
TU: "It seems that the rain is following MotoGP this season!Both Mugello and Catalunya race weekends were affected by rain, which made tyre choice for the race more difficult. We had limited dry running in the practice sessions, which prevented us from carrying out the usual longer runs with the preferred tyre specification.
"When we do not have the chance to assess the tyre performance over medium-long runs in practice, there is always a question mark for the race, so I was particularly pleased with the performance over the full race distance in both events."
Q. For both races, there was a Bridgestone-shod rider on pole position, was this a surprise?
TU: "It is no secret that qualifying has not been one of our strengths this year, but we have been making important progress with our qualifying tyres in recent race weekends. In Mugello, we enjoyed our most competitive qualifying session of the season with Valentino taking his first pole position on our tyres.
"Loris also qualified on the front row for the first time since the end of 2006, which was very nice to see, while Casey was not far off the front row in fourth. In Catalunya, Casey did an amazing lap and a great job to take pole position, but it was the rider who made the difference."
Q. What did Bridgestone work on in the post-Catalunya test?
TU: "In the post Catalunya test, we worked mainly on rear compound and construction tests for fundamental development. The weather again played its part, though, and we were limited with our running on Tuesday.
"We were able to look at the tyre performance in hotter conditions on Monday with the track temperature over forty degrees, so this will help us prepare for races like Sachsenring, which is traditionally a hot race weekend.
"Our busy schedule continues with back-to-back races in Donington and Assen, while we also have a important test in Brno next week. The track has been totally resurfaced since last year's event and the revised tyre regulations allow us to carry out a two-day test ahead of the race weekend, so this test will be crucial in our preparations for this year's event."
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