Italian Grand Prix, Mugello: Bridgestone Race Review

Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo continued his affinity with the Mugello circuit, leading from the first lap to claim his third successive victory at the iconic Italian venue.

Lorenzo passed pole-sitter Dani Pedrosa on the second corner of the race, and after being hounded by both Repsol Honda riders early in the race, picked up the pace on the thirteenth lap to gap his rivals and take the chequered flag by 5.4 seconds. Pedrosa inherited second place late in the race after his teammate Marc Marquez – who set a new race lap record of 1’47.639 – crashed out with three laps remaining. Finishing on the podium for the second race in a row was Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Cal Crutchlow who crossed the finish line in third place. Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro continued his peerless record this season of being the top CRT finisher, coming home in eighth position.

Weather conditions for today’s race were a carbon-copy of what was experienced yesterday for qualifying, with and a peak track temperature of 44°C recorded during the twenty-three lap contest. Grip levels were slightly improved from yesterday as there was no rain overnight, ensuring the rubber deposited on the track in yesterday’s sessions remained. With such similar conditions between qualifying and the race, the same tyre combination used in qualifying was again represented in the race tyre choice, with all riders selecting the softer rear slick option available to them, and all but one rider selecting the harder front slick option.

Lorenzo’s second victory of the season sees him close to within twelve points of Pedrosa in the MotoGP™ World Championship standings, while Marquez’s first DNF of the year sees him twenty-eight points adrift of his teammate and third in the standings.

Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft & Medium. Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric)
Bridgestone wet tyre compounds available: Hard (Main), Soft (Alternative)

Weather: Dry. Ambient 23-25°C; Track 41-44°C (Bridgestone measurement)

Hiroshi Yamada – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department
“Congratulations to Jorge and Yamaha on continuing their dominance at Mugello with another victory here today. I am pleased that the crowd numbers at Mugello were up this year as it is one of the highlights of the MotoGP season, though it was a shame for the fans to have Valentino exit the race so early as I am sure he would have put in a strong performance today. Looking back over the weekend, I believe our decision to make all rear slicks for Mugello this year in our heat-resistant construction was correct, as these worked very well for both the works and CRT riders.”

Masao Azuma – Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department
“Conditions for the race were the same as yesterday afternoon and so all the riders selected the same tyre combination that they used yesterday during FP4 and qualifying. We had no overnight rain so track conditions were the best they had been all weekend and this resulted in a very fast pace at the beginning of the race, with Marc setting a new race lap record on the second lap. I’m pleased with how our tyres performed this weekend as even though all our rear slicks this year at Mugello were in our heat-resistant special construction, we still saw new lap records in qualifying and the race.”

Source: Bridgestone Motorsport