Michelin Report

MICHELIN MAN PEDROSA ENDS 2007 WITH A FLOURISH

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) rode to a thrilling victory in today’s MotoGP season finale at Valencia, beating Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici) by an impressive 5.447 seconds after a nail-biting 30 laps.

Pedrosa was in astonishing form, starting the race from pole position and leading from lap five all the way to the chequered flag, breaking the 990cc lap record by 0.176 seconds aboard his 800cc RC212V. His second victory of the year secured him second overall in the 2007 MotoGP World Championship, just one point ahead of Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) who didn’t finish today’s race. Rossi crashed out of yesterday’s qualifying session, breaking three bones in his right hand, and although he bravely elected to race he was unable to finish the gruelling 30 lap event. The final event of the MotoGP season was watched by a record weekend crowd of 237,000 fans.

“That was a fantastic race,” said Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing. “The pace was very fast and we were very happy to see that Dani could maintain a quick pace all the way to the finish. It’s great for him to win in front of his fans and also great for us. This is one of the most demanding tracks in MotoGP so we are very happy to have scored pole position, the race win and established a new lap record here. This result shows that we are improving the performance of our tyres. We had some good results in recent tests, getting good feedback from our riders, and today’s result shows that we are going in the right direction. This win is very positive for us and very motivating for winter testing and for next season.”

“Casey and I were going fast all race, I didn’t expect the pace to be that quick,” said Pedrosa. “I pushed very hard in the early laps to catch him, I was riding at my maximum and was really focused on my job. Once I was in front I had to keep pushing because he didn’t give up. Towards the end of the race the tyres started to move around a bit, so I was changing my style to get more grip. Winning this last race is very important for me, for my team and also for Michelin. I think we all did a good job, my thanks to all of them. We start testing next week with HRC and Michelin and I’m looking forward to it. MotoGP technology is developing very fast, so we need to work hard on our new bike, it’s going to be an interesting test.”

Weber also welcomed the revised tyre regulations, announced this weekend, which increase each rider’s race allocation from 31 tyres to 40 tyres and open up options for track testing. “This year it was quite difficult for us to adapt to the 2007 rules but the new rules are better,” he said. “Next year there will be the opportunity to test at new tracks and fully resurfaced tracks with test riders, which will be useful for everyone. Also, everyone will already have experience of all the tracks with the 800s. Finally, I’d like to say thanks to all the riders who have supported us this year and we look forward to working with our partners into 2008.”

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