Tydligen första gången nu på 14 år som VM i den största GP-klassen avgörs på sista racet.
Under 990cc-eran har Michelin vunnit 74 av 81 race.
Nicolas Goubert, (Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing.)
“It is obviously going to be an interesting and exciting weekend for everyone! Nicky has been strong at Valencia since the beginning. He scored his first front- row start there in 2003 and he finished just a fraction of a second behind Marco (Melandri, Fortuna Honda RC211V-Michelin) last year. Coming from the US he’s used to tracks with a lot of slow corners and he is also used to turning left from his dirt track days. On the other hand, Valentino says he’s not a great fan of the track, though everyone knows he will still be very strong. He got third at Valencia last year, even though he started from the fifth row of the grid."
“The championship situation doesn’t change anything for us, we will do our job to the best of our ability as we always do. As usual we will make sure each rider gets the best tyres, although that doesn’t mean they will all use the same tyres because different riders choose different tyres according to their riding styles and the requirements of their machines."
“Nicky uses our wider profile front while Valentino has always preferred our narrow profile front. I think the performance of these tyres will be similar at Valencia even though they should offer different advantages in different parts of the track. The narrow profile is slightly lighter through direction changes, while the wider profile gives a bit more grip into corners, especially downhill turns like the final left-hander, which could be useful if the race for the title goes down to the last corner or the last lap!"
“Valencia has always been quite a tough track. The layout is very asymmetric, the ground temperature can be very cool and there are some long corners, especially the last fast left which tightens into a very slow turn. This kind of corner prevents us with a very different challenge to the last fast left at Phillip Island, which opens up rather than tightens up. They thus require different tyre characteristics. At Phillip Island the priority is traction for hard acceleration, at Valencia riders need maximum edge grip to get them through the tight final turn as fast as possible. Our 2006 rear, which delivers a bigger footprint for extra edge grip, should improve performance at Valencia, especially through that last corner."
“But the biggest challenge at Valencia is finding the best combination of compounds for the left and right sides of the rear tyre. You need good warm-up on the right, because there are only five right-handers and because the track temperature could be as low as 15 degrees if the weather is cool. On the left you need a much stronger compound to cope with the heat generated through the nine left-handers, especially that long, fast left at the end of the lap.”
Dovizioso om det kommande 250 racet.
Andrea Dovizioso
"It is hard to recover 13 points in just one race, but I’ll do my best to make Lorenzo’s life not easy. He is still the favourite rider for the title and the only advantage I have is psychological as I haven’t got anything to loose and I can ride with less pressure. The breathtaking win in Portugal gave great motivation to the team and I think we will face this GP in the best conditions in a track where last year Pedrosa was able to do great things with this bike. It will be a tough race and my goal there is just to win, then we will see what happens.”