Bridgestone: Riders on softer rear tyres during qualifying in Valencia

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa smashed the existing pole position record by two-tenths of a second to claim the top slot on the grid for tomorrow’s Valencia Grand Prix.

Pedrosa’s qualifying time of 1’30.844 was the first lap in the 1’30 bracket ever recorded at the Valencia circuit as the rain finally cleared for qualifying allowing riders to test the grip levels of the new track surface in the dry. Second quickest in qualifying was newly-crowned World Champion Jorge Lorenzo on the Yamaha Factory Racing M1 with a time of 1’31.195, while rounding out the front row is Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner. Top CRT qualifier was Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaro whose quick lap of 1’32.834 sees him line up in P10 for the race.

This morning’s FP3 session took place on a damp but drying circuit and it wasn’t until qualifying that the track was completely dry with a peak track temperature of 27°C recorded. All riders set their best lap time on the softer rear option, the medium compound asymmetric slick, while front tyre choice was predominantly the harder slick option as the riders preferred the greater cornering and breaking stability of this specification.

Morning Warm Up takes place at 0940 local time (GMT +1) tomorrow before the final race of the 2012 season starts at 1400.

Shinji Aoki - Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department

“After another rain-affected session this morning we finally had good track conditions for qualifying and a chance to assess tyre performance on the new track surface in the dry. The layout of this circuit requires good cornering stability and rear grip and this was reflected in the tyre choice today, with most riders preferring the softer rear slick combined with the harder front option. It was positive to see that even though track temperatures cooled down towards the end of the session riders could still post very fast lap-times on the harder front slick option. There is a chance of rain for tomorrow’s race but if conditions are dry then slick tyre choice should be very similar to what we saw today.”

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

Weather:
FP3 - Wet. Ambient 16-18°C; Track 17-20°C (Bridgestone measurement)
QP - Dry. Ambient 20-20°C; Track 27-23°C (Bridgestone measurement)

Bridgestone Motorsport