MotoGP 2011 – Round Four – Le Mans
Monster Energy Grand Prix de France – Lorenzo leads the way to Le Mans
Three rounds into the 2011 season and the MotoGP World Championship has already delivered a wealth of thrilling on-track action, as well as a dose of intense competitive rivalry off it which has added spice to what is already shaping up to be a fantastic title battle.
The drama will continue this weekend at Le Mans where reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo heads into the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France holding a slender four-point advantage over Dani Pedrosa at the top of the standings, after three rounds. Yamaha Factory Racing rider Lorenzo is preparing for his 150th GP start this weekend, which would make him the youngest rider ever to reach the milestone (taking the record off Pedrosa), and he won last year’s race at Le Mans. Lorenzo knows that his Repsol Honda rival is feeling fit and sharp after taking his first win of 2011 at the previous round in Portugal however, and the pair are now level on 36 career GP wins each.
Casey Stoner stands 20 points adrift of his Repsol Honda team-mate after three races and will bid to take what would only be his second ever podium finish at Le Mans across all classes this weekend. The Australian is closely trailed by Valentino Rossi, who has won at Le Mans three times in the premier class (seven podium finishes in total), and the Italian will be pushing for his first Ducati podium at a circuit at which the factory has never before won a MotoGP race.
Rossi’s Ducati team-mate Nicky Hayden and Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso are level on points and finished fourth and third respectively in last year’s Le Mans race, and Hiroshi Aoyama has enjoyed a good start to the season with the San Carlo Honda Gresini team, something he will aim to maintain in France.
The Japanese rider’s team-mate Marco Simoncelli’s current points haul belies the Italian’s form so far this season. After placing fifth in Qatar he has crashed out of the last two races; at Jerez whilst leading and at Estoril after displaying a pace throughout the weekend which had indicated that an elusive first premier class podium was more than attainable.
British rookie Cal Crutchlow’s debut season continued on an upward curve in Portugal and the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider will make his racing debut at Le Mans. Team-mate Colin Edwards has twice stood on the podium at the track and the pair will be confident of following up an impressive previous round in Portugal at their team’s home GP.
Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) crashed out of a premier class race for the first time in his career in Portugal and will be determined to make amends in France, as will rookie Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing), and Toni Elías (LCR Honda) has twice won at Le Mans (once in 250s and last year in Moto2).
Ben Spies’ (Yamaha Factory Racing) season has not started as the American would have expected after two crashes in the last two races, and his target will be a points-scoring finish at a circuit at which he did not finish last year’s race. Pramac Racing duo Loris Capirossi and Randy de Puniet will try to follow up their Portugal results with another encouraging step forward, whilst Álvaro Bautista has had further time to recover following his incredible comeback from injury at Estoril.
The Moto2 show arrives at Le Mans with German rider Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) the form man in the category. Bradl has started each of the opening three rounds of the 2011 season from pole position and has taken two victories (Qatar and in the previous round at Estoril), and currently leads the Championship standings by 13 points ahead of Andrea Iannone.
The Italian surrendered the Championship lead to Bradl in Portugal when he slid out of the group fighting for victory in the race with three laps to go, and will aim to recover lost ground at Le Mans. It is a circuit at which Iannone has a best-ever finish of fourth, which came in last year’s Moto2 race.
Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project) has had a consistent start to the season and scored a podium result at Le Mans last year in the Moto2 race, and Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2) returns to the scene of his last-ever GP victory (in the 125s in 2006) determined to take his first Moto2 win having crashed out of the Portugal race when in the leading group.
Julián Simón took his first podium of the year in Portugal and was second in last year’s Moto2 race at Le Mans, and the Mapfre Aspar rider is also seeking a maiden Moto2 win, whilst Yuki Takahashi also stood on the rostrum for the first time this year at Estoril and goes back to the site where he won his first ever GP race in 2006 in the 250cc class.
Bradley Smith (Tech 3) and Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) experienced difficult races in Portugal and will be eager to put the third round behind them with strong results in France. The latter of the two is still in search of his first Championship points of the season, as is reigning 125cc World Champion Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol). Italian rider Claudio Corti (Italtrans) will undergo a medical check on Thursday to asses his fitness after suffering a shoulder injury in Portugal.
Two wildcard riders will also participate this weekend, with Australian Alex Cudlin riding a Moriwaki for the QMMF Racing Team and South African Steven Odendaal on a Suter and riding under the MS Racing banner.
Nico Terol remains the man to beat in the 125cc category, having opened up a 25-point lead at the top of the Championship standings after just three rounds. The Bankia Aspar rider has won the first three races of the campaign – the first rider to do so since Masao Azuma in 1999 – and at Le Mans will line up for his 100th GP start, all of which have come in the 125cc class.
With the Spaniard in such strong form a chasing pack has formed in his wake, with German duo Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) and Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) and Frenchman Johann Zarco (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo) a trio of riders battling one another.
Cortese leads the threesome whilst Folger and Zarco are level on points, and the French rider will be eager for a strong home result after stepping onto the podium for the past two consecutive races. His competitors are also in rostrum-finishing shape after the opening three races of 2011.
Spaniards Efrén Vázquez (Avant-AirAsia-Ajo) and Sergio Gadea (Blusens by Paris Hilton Racing Team) know that they will need to produce strong results in France to maintain contact with those ahead of them, even this early in the season, whilst Gadea’s rookie team-mate Maverick Viñales will have taken great encouragement from his display in Portugal where he was denied a first podium in only his third GP by just two-thousandths of a second. Other rookies in the shape of Danny Kent (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) and Miguel Oliveira (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica) continue to impress, whilst British rider Taylor Mackenzie (Phonica Racing) will hope to be fit to ride after a crash in QP at Estoril ruled him out of the race with a shoulder injury.
Three wildcard riders will supplement the field at Le Mans with French youngsters Kevin Szalai (Maxiscoot MVT Racing) and Kevin Thobois (Team RMS) and Swiss rider Patrick Meile (Albatros Racing) riding.
The on-track action at the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France commences on Friday at 9.15am local time, when the 125cc class takes to the track for the opening practice session of the weekend.
— MotoGP Rnd 4 Le Mans Pre Event Statistics
– Yamaha Preview
Jorge Lorenzo heads to Le Mans this weekend for the French round of the 2011 MotoGP Championship in confident mood. Having celebrated his 24th birthday last week the reigning World Champion will be looking to extend his unbroken run of podium finishes so far this year. An impressive race win at Jerez in treacherous racing conditions and two superb second place podium finishes at Qatar and Estoril mean Lorenzo is the current Championship leader with a four point lead over fellow Spaniard Dani Pedrosa. Le Mans has so far delivered great results, Lorenzo winning there the last two years consecutively and not forgetting a victory in 2007 in the 250GP class.
Fellow Yamaha Factory Racing rider Ben Spies arrives in France determined to break his run of bad luck with two DNFs from the last two rounds. Spies last visit to Le Mans in 2010 was also hit by misfortune, a big high side in the final free practice session seeing the American tackle qualifying and the subsequent race in some pain with a swollen ankle, ultimately resulting in a crash on the seventh lap and a DNF.
Both riders will be hunting a set up that delivers optimum balance and control under hard and repeated braking. Success at Le Mans requires dispatching several tight chicanes at the beginning of the circuit then attacking the short straights and tight hairpins that make up the remainder. Although arguably most famous for the Le Mans 24HR race, the iconic circuit draws huge crowds for the French MotoGP race.
Jorge Lorenzo
“I am coming back to Le Mans, a track I really enjoy and where I won last season. The people in Le Mans love motorbikes, they love the smell of fuel. We are on the top, but we should be focused on getting as many points as possible. Our main goal is the podium, our fourth podium, and to be in front in Montmeló. This track has a lot of chicanes and is funny for me. The weather is always changing, we have to be careful with the forecast, it can change everything.”
Ben Spies
Ive had a really relaxing few days off after Estoril back home in Como, Italy. I had a good chance to get out on my bicycle and really work off some of the frustration from the race. Having felt so good at the start I really believed we could have delivered some strong results in Portugal. Anyway, we all move on together and as a team were coming to France determined to make up for it and really kick off our 2011 season again.
Wilco Zeelenberg
We had a fantastic test in Estoril, everybody was surprised with the good weather so we had the opportunity to try many things. Were looking forward to Le Mans; Jorge has always been good there. Hopefully weve found our way back from the test to an improved setting so Jorge can go back to his old riding style of fast corner entry which he was missing a little for the first three races. Weve given that back to him so were confident he can perform well in France and for the rest of the season. Le Mans is a Yamaha track, it works well for us so its also a great place for Ben to come back and aim for the podium.
Massimo Meregalli
We left Estoril with some good points from the test and some valuable information. We are going to Le Mans with good confidence to continue our strong performance. Jorge intends to keep his performance high; he has already proved he is strong at Le Mans. Ben has had a challenging start to the year however we had a really good test at Estoril and we are confident he will kick start his championship attack on Sunday in France.
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Preview
Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow head to the all-important home race for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team in France this weekend confident they can continue their brilliant start to the 2011 MotoGP World Championship campaign. And not only is this weekend’s encounter at the legendary Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans the home race for Tech 3, the event is sponsored by the Team’s main backer Monster, adding further importance to the fourth round of an engrossing season.
Edwards heads into this weekend’s race in optimistic mood after he claimed his first top six finish of the campaign in the Portuguese Grand Prix earlier this month. And he impressed again during a one-day test at the Estoril track to finish inside the top six having worked on a range of suspension settings to improve rear grip with his Yamaha YZR-M1 machine. The vastly experienced American has produced some of his finest MotoGP performances at the 4.815kms circuit and one of his three premier class pole positions came at the French venue in 2007. And two of his 11 podium finishes have been scored at the Le Mans circuit, which has been a permanent fixture on the MotoGP calendar since 2000.
British rider Crutchlow is aiming to continue his fantastic rookie campaign and the 25-year-old won’t be daunted at the prospect of having to learn another new track. Crutchlow had never raced in Jerez and Estoril before but he qualified and finished comfortably inside the top ten in both races. He’s made another impressive top ten finish his prime target for this weekend after he produced a sensational performance in the recent Estoril test. Demonstrating how quickly he has adapted to the challenge of riding a lighter and more powerful MotoGP machine, Crutchlow finished fourth quickest behind Marco Simoncelli, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner and is determined to deliver another good result for Tech 3 and Monster in this weekend’s 28-lap race.
Colin Edwards
“I am really looking forward to Le Mans because it is a track where I’ve had a lot of success at in the past. The Yamaha YZR-M1 has always worked well there too with the sweet handling characteristics of our bike suiting the layout of the track. We had a really good test after the race in Portugal and found a good direction to work with for improving rear grip and that should help us a lot. The new Yamaha chassis has a lot of potential but we still have to understand it a lot more to get the best performance out of it. A top six in Portugal is going to be hard to repeat because the field is so strong this season, but that’s what I’ll be aiming for. This weekend is huge for Tech 3 and Monster and I’ll be giving it 100 per cent to deliver a good result for both.
Cal Crutchlow
“I’m heading to Le Mans with a lot of confidence, even though it is another track I’ve only ever seen before on TV. I know it won’t be an easy task but Estoril was obviously another great weekend form me and then to finish fourth quickest in the test showed what I am capable of. Each time I get on the bike I am learning more and more and thanks to my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 I’ve been able to make some big progress. I’m always determined to get the best result possible but this weekend definitely has extra significance being the Team’s home race and Monster being title sponsor of the event. If I can replicate the results I acheived in Jerez and Estoril I’ll be really happy.”
– Ducati Preview
This Sunday, the Ducati Marlboro Team will take on the French Grand Prix for the fourth round of the season, at the Le Mans circuit that is also home to auto racing’s famous 24 hour race. That said, the track used by the MotoGP series is much shorter than the over 13 kilometer (8 mile) version used for the legendary endurance race, with which it only shares a small section.
The Bugatti circuit is often described as “stop and go” because it doesn’t flow from turn to turn. Nearly every corner is preceded by a straightaway—some long and others shorter—creating a situation where riders brake particularly hard and then accelerate abruptly.
Historically, it has proven to be a demanding track for the Ducati, which has nonetheless twice made the podium, with Capirossi in 2006 and with Stoner in 2007, while Nicky Hayden actually achieved his best result ever at the track aboard the Italian bike, with a fourth place last year.
Valentino Rossi has earned three victories, in 2002, 2005 and 2008, along with another four podiums. All of these were in MotoGP, as the French GP was held at Le Castellet when he raced in the 125 and 250cc classes.
VALENTINO ROSSI, Ducati Marlboro Team
“Le Mans is a historic track, and I always like to go to these places with rich motorsport traditions, even if the stop-and-go layout is a little particular. The atmosphere is always really nice, with the grandstand filled with fans on both Saturday and Sunday. The track isn’t particularly technical but maintaining a good rhythm is tricky: there are many points where we brake really hard for corners, so then it’s important to have strong acceleration on the exit. We’ll see how well we’re able to deal with those characteristics. We’re coming off a test that confirmed that we’ve started to go in the right direction and, although we’re still in the first phase, we hope we can find a good setup for Le Mans so that we can be faster in the qualifying session. We’re all working hard, and we’re making progress, but we still have to keep improving.”
NICY HAYDEN, Ducati Marlboro Team
“Traditionally, Le Mans hasn’t been a good track for me. I’ve never had a podium or a front row there, but I was fourth there last year, which was my best-ever result. You can’t really make too much out of that, but we’ll try to take the information we collected during the test at Estoril and see if we can put it to good use in France. The weather at Le Mans can be either way, especially this time of year, which is just part of racing. One good thing I look forward to is that I think the best strength of our bike right now is stability under hard braking, and Le Mans has a lot of hard braking. Traditionally, the grip there isn’t very good, so that’s something we’re probably really going to have to work on. We’ll go there and see what we’ve got.”
VITTORIANO GUARESCHI, Team Manager
“On paper, Le Mans isn’t one of the most favorable tracks for us, but we’ve still had some good races there with Loris and Casey, and with Nicky, who was strong last year and finished close to the podium. He and Valentino were both pleased with the work we did during the post-race test at Estoril, and now the team will try to do everything it can to adapt to the GP11 to a circuit that’s very different from the one in Portugal. Once again we’re hoping for a sunny weekend, since every hour of track time in “normal” conditions is very important for us because of the work we’re doing.”
– Suzuki Preview
Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista has been undergoing a comprehensive training programme to improve his fitness in readiness for this weekend’s French Grand Prix.
Bautista made an astonishing comeback at the Portuguese race just six weeks after breaking his femur and is now eager to make up for missing the first two races of 2011. He is determined to perform well at Le Mans after the disappointment of missing last year’s race, following a crash that aggravated an existing injury and forced him to withdraw from the event.
Le Mans is one of the most famous race-tracks in the world and the MotoGP field will race on the Bugatti Circuit, a layout which only shares a short section of the 24-hour track. The 4,185m circuit is a real stop-and-go design which will certainly test Bautista’s physical ability to change direction. The track also has an incredibly fast first corner – taken flat-out in top gear before braking hard for a chicane. Le Mans is approximately 200km/s south-west of Paris and the usual lively crowd that fills the camp-sites around the circuit will add a unique atmosphere to the fourth round of the season.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP takes to the track on Friday 13th May for two free practice sessions, followed by another free session on Saturday morning and an hour of qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 28-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).
Álvaro Bautista: “I have been working hard since the Portuguese Grand Prix and test to improve my fitness and get ready for Le Mans and the rest of the season. It was great to be back on the bike at Estoril, but it showed me that I still have some work to do to be up to race fitness. I plan to go to Le Mans in a better condition than I went to Estoril and in a much better condition than when I arrived in France last year! My target is to get to the finish line this year – because I didn’t manage that in 2010 – and then build on things for the remainder of the season. There are still plenty of races left so we have plenty of time to show what we can do. The few laps that I did in the test were good because they showed that the new chassis is an improvement, so we will use that in France and hopefully it will help us to be more competitive.”
– HRC Preview
The MotoGP World Championship continues its swing through the European heart of the schedule with a stop at the famed Le Mans Circuit, where the Honda riders arrive brimming with confidence after a prolific start to the season.
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa put on a clinical display of race craft at the previous Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril to win his first race of the season and move close to championship leader Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha). Pedrosa has long been known for his lightning starts, from which he would build an insurmountable advantage. But in Estoril, riding with the uncertainty of a surgically repaired left shoulder, Pedrosa stalked Lorenzo for 24 of 28 laps before making a precise pass to start the 25th lap. The Spaniard quickly pulled away, dispelling the myth that he could only win from the front while at the same time proving to himself and others that his shoulder wouldn’t be an impediment in his quest for the MotoGP World Championship.
With the added rest since the race in Portugal, Pedrosa arrives in France ready to win again. Pedrosa was on pole two of the past three years in France, and has won the 250cc and 125cc races, but victory at Le Mans in the MotoGP class has so far eluded him. Given this season’s start-third, second, first-Pedrosa could join fellow Honda riders Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Mick Doohan, Alex Criville, Valentino Rossi, Sete Gibernau, and Marco Melandri as premier class winners at the circuit 200Km southwest of Paris.
Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda RC212V) sits just behind Pedrosa in the championship with a season that’s been nearly as impressive. Stoner began with a win in Qatar from pole and was challenging for the win from pole in Jerez when he was knocked down and couldn’t restart. A back problem in Estoril prevented him from putting his talent to full use. Still, he finished on the podium in third.
Andrea Dovizioso, the third member of the Repsol Honda team, made it three riders in the top four in Estoril, the best Honda finish since a sweep of the podium at the 2006 United States Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. The finish of the Estoril race was dramatic for Dovi, who used the power of the Honda RC212V to speed past Valentino Rossi (Ducati) at the finish line. By finishing fourth, the Italian moved within a point of Rossi for fourth in the championship behind Lorenzo, Pedrosa and Stoner.
Dovi finished on the podium at Le Mans last year and hopes that with the help of the improvements made in a test following Estoril he can repeat the finish.
The French Grand Prix marks the 40th anniversary of Repsol’s involvement in motorcycle racing. The Spanish oil giant first took to the track on the fairing of Angel Nieto’s motorcycle at the Salzburgring on May 9, 1971. The company has 25 championships, including nine in the premier class since joining Honda as title sponsor in 1995.
Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) has been brilliant in his second MotoGP season, but also inconsistent. The 1.83m tall Italian with the bushy hair had a decidedly mixed weekend in Estoril. For the first time in his young MotoGP career, he topped an official practice session, then repeated by sweeping both sessions on Friday. But his exuberance was tempered by a Friday crash. On Saturday he was within minutes of taking his first pole position when he again fell off.
His race ended prematurely when he crashed on a cold tyre in the first left-hand corner after Estoril’s opening three rights. “Super Sic” didn’t dwell on it. In a test the day after the race he lapped faster than the circuit record lap and 1.4s quicker than the fastest lap from Sunday’s race.
Despite having won there in 2009 and finishing second in 2008, Simoncelli isn’t a fan of the Le Mans circuit.
Neither is team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini). The top Japanese rider is enjoying a productive sophomore season with three top ten finishes, which he hopes to continue in France. In his second MotoGP season, and first with the Gresini Honda team, the former 250cc World Champion continues to build both his technical and racing experience. With an eye towards Le Mans, Aoyama turned in 73 laps during the Estoril test to finish just behind Pedrosa.
Toni Elias (LCR Honda MotoGP) returns to one of the tracks where he recorded one of his seven Moto2 victories. When Elias won the Moto2 race at Le Mans he over the lead in the championship, which he never relinquished en route to the inaugural Moto2 World Championship.
Elias has had success in the smaller classes in Le Mans-he won the 250cc race in 2003 and finished on the podium in the 125cc class, but hasn’t been as successful in the premier class, which he last competed in 2009.
The dominant rider in this year’s Moto2 World Championship is Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing, Kalex). The young German has had a nearly flawless season. His performance chart shows poles in all three races, and two dominant wins sandwiching a fifth in difficult conditions in Spain. In those two wins, in Qatar and Estoril, Bradl led all but one of the combined 46 laps.
Bradl is the son of Helmut Bradl, who finished runner-up in the 1991 250cc World Championship. That season was the best of his six-year career, with all five of his wins coming in 1991, including in the Vitesse du Mans Grand Prix at the Le Mans circuit.
Andrea Iannone (Speed Master, Suter) arrives in France second in the championship in a season in which he’s vastly improved on difficult qualifying sessions. The Italian finished second in Qatar after qualifying 16th, and won in Jerez from 11th on the grid. The Portuguese race proved more challenging.
Iannone knows that he has to qualify better if he’s to contend for the title and is confident that he can close the gap on Bradl.
Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project, FTR) has had a similar season to fellow Italian Iannone. Corsi hasn’t qualified better than 11th, but hasn’t finished worse than sixth. The finishing performances are more important and add up to third in the championship, but better starts in the highly competitive field would yield more podiums.
Corsi returns to Le Mans with fond memories; it’s where he scored his first podium of the 2010 championship.
The legend of Le Mans was built on the 24-hour races, held on the 13Km circuit. The track first hosted a motorcycle grand prix in 1969 on the shorter Le Mans Bugatti Grand Prix Circuit, which was built in 1965 around the much larger track.
The French GP at Le Mans was on and off the calendar for a number of years-it has been held on eight different circuits-and removed following the 1995 race in which Alberto Puig, now Dani Pedrosa’s Repsol Honda team manager, suffered serious injuries. After numerous safety improvements were made, the race returned as a permanent fixture in 2000.
The stop-and-go nature of the track doesn’t make it a favourite of the riders, who prefer fast, flowing tracks like Mugello and Phillip Island. The track has been altered a number of times to improve safety over the past decade-plus, but the essential character hasn’t changed.
The 4.180Km circuit has 13 corners, nine rights and four lefts, with the longest straightaway only 674m. The result is a track thick with hard braking and subsequent acceleration, with electronics coming into play to modulate rear tyre spin on corner exit. The circuit may well be a challenge for riders of the Honda RC212V, which doesn’t list among its assets braking stability, though the situation has markedly improved this season, and further so during the post-Estoril test. On the plus side, among the many off-season improvements to the RC212V is much smoother corner exiting, with less movement of the rear tyre that allows riders to move quickly through the gears.
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa says: “It’s been the first week in a long time in which I have felt calm and confident, especially after the race we had in Portugal. It was a great release for me to feel good on the bike after the operation and makes me see things differently. After the race and Monday’s test I was very tired and sore. I spent three days resting to relax the muscles and then I continued with the physiotherapy and gently working with my trainer. Now, I look forward to getting back on the bike. Le Mans will be, as always, a difficult and busy weekend. I’ve done well overall in this circuit, I have quite a lot of confidence there, but I am yet to win in MotoGP and I would like to. It’s similar to Estoril, a stop-and-go track where Yamaha has been also very strong in the past. We need to take a big profit of the practice sessions to prepare a bike with good stability, traction and acceleration and be prepared for any track condition because of the weather. In this track you need to be also very focused because the race is long and it’s very important to be consistent and not make any mistakes.”
Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner says: “In Estoril I was very happy to retain third and keep some valuable points for the championship. We’ve always had some reasonable results in Le Mans, but never really quite good enough. The practice sessions will be important to get the set-up of the bike just right, and I feel the Honda should work well there so I’m looking forward to it.”
Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso says: “After the improvements made in the post GP test in Estoril, we arrive in Le Mans more competitive. We will use the new clutch we tested in Portugal and take advantage of the set-up solutions tested there. Le Mans is a slow track and has a lot of changes of direction. Unfortunately the circuit has lost part of its fascination after changes made in the past years. I have always scored good results on this track; last year we had a very good race finishing on the podium. We head to Le Mans determined to repeat it. Our target is the podium and to achieve it we need to work well from the first day.”
San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli says: “The Estoril test on the day after the race was a good way for me to put the race behind me and go to Le Mans with a different attitude. Now I am just looking forward to putting it behind me properly. The test was a useful and important one ahead of the fourth race of the season. I am more sure than ever that I can run with the front guys and I will be giving everything to come out with a top result. I will certainly be trying to make sure I don’t make the same mistake on a cold tyre because the only good thing that came out of it in Portugal was a nice picture of my aerial barrel roll! Joking aside, I am keen to do well at Le Mans, a circuit I don’t particularly like even though I won there in 250 in 2009 and finished second in 2008.”
San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Hiroshi Aoyama says: “I am happy with the results so far and with my position in the championship. I have made good progress and I am adapting more and more to MotoGP, thanks also to the brilliant job being done by the team and the excellent relationship we are building. The test after the race at Estoril was positive and we got some good information for the future. Now we go to Le Mans feeling sure we can continue on this path. The track is not one of my favourites and I have not had good results there in the past, but I am sure we can change that this weekend.”
LCR Honda MotoGP rider Toni Elias says: “In the recent years, Le Mans has been the scene of some thrilling races, several of them influenced by rainy conditions, so I am really hoping for a dry race. This track’s character is very stop-and-go, with plenty of slow turns, which means there will be some big battles on the brakes. Therefore we must concentrate on honing our machine stability during braking, as well as improving rear-end traction for the numerous hairpin exits. In the recent Portuguese testing session we obtained some small improvements on our bike stability, but this track is totally different. We come here with high motivation and we aim to take another step forward.”
Moto2 RIDER QUOTES
Viessmann Kieffer Racing, Kalex, rider Stefan Bradl says: “First of all, I hope for good weather for the whole weekend, because all the time it is changing. I think we will be having a good package at the moment, and for sure will be not easy this race. Also
(Estoril) for me was very hard. Just keep concentrated on myself, doing my job and we can have a good weekend there.”
Speed Master, Suter, rider Andrea Iannone says: “I sincerely hope that in (Le Mans) qualifying will be better, to be able to start from a better position. Now we must wait for the next race and do my best. (Stefan) Bradl has taken a small lead in the championship, but we are still at the beginning of the season. It’s a shame for the Estoril race, but I’m happy because we demonstrated our potential, now we just have to make the most of it.”
Ioda Racing Project, FTR, rider Simone Corsi says: “We must continue working to do better and be able to give my best. I know I can do more. I know that I need to qualify better if I’m going to get on the podium in Le Mans, as I did last year. We will concentrate on our set-up in practice and hope for the best.”
– Bridgestone Preview
For the French Grand Prix, held at Le Mans on 15 May, Bridgestone will introduce a new asymmetric rear slick tyre. The soft option rear is Bridgestone’s first soft asymmetric offering, and features soft compound rubber in the right shoulder with extra soft compound in the left side.
Initially scheduled for first use at the postponed Japanese Grand Prix, Le Mans now represents the debut for this tyre which will provide better initial grip and warm-up performance and will provide better performance in the cold conditions that can be expected in France. The nature of the Le Mans circuit is also slippery which demands softer compound rubber to generate good grip.
Asymmetric rear slicks are required to provide good durability and stability through the nine right-handed corners whilst not sacrificing warm-up performance in the left side of the tyres which is only used five times each lap.
Le Mans can be called a stop-and-go circuit, which is to say that rather than being a flowing lap it is punctuated by a succession of heavy braking points followed by hard acceleration. Heavy braking places emphasis on the centre section of the front tyres, whilst the hard acceleration out of corners means good edge grip is important. Having said that, with its smooth tarmac and low temperature Le Mans is the least severe circuit of the year for tyres which is why the soft and medium front and rear slicks have been selected by Bridgestone.
The weather in the region is unpredictable and whilst last year was dry, in recent years the race has been interrupted by rain so Bridgestone have selected the soft wets for the fourth time this year.
Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department
“The French GP is always popular with fans and is a large and important race for Bridgestone and our local sales companies too. I’m also pleased that we have developed a new tyre over the winter that we are using for the first time at Le Mans. It shows that we are not resting on our laurels and still working hard and constantly developing our MotoGP tyres, listening closely to the riders in an effort to provide them the best possible tyres in terms both of performance and of course safety.”
Hirohide Hamashima – Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division
“Le Mans is a slippery and smooth circuit, and run early in the year when the track temperature is low, so softer compound tyres are required to generate grip and this is why we will use our new soft asymmetric rear tyre in France. We developed the extra soft compound at the end of last year and used it in Portugal and Valencia, but over the winter we have incorporated it into a soft compound asymmetric tyre which is totally new. It is designed to work when the conditions are colder to warm-up faster and provide riders with better feeling in the first stages of use.
“The circuit has quite a stop-and-go nature, although the last part of the lap is high speed. Lateral loads placed on the tyres are relatively low but good stability under braking is crucial, especially into turns three and nine which come at the end of the two straights. The circuit has an asymmetric layout that uses the right shoulders harder, hence our choice of asymmetric rear slicks.”