MotoGP News
The East German circuit of Sachsenring is the second shortest on the calendar but is one of the most demanding of the year for Bridgestone’s front and rear tires in terms of tire temperature and durability.
The challenge for Bridgestone’s tires comes from the fact that the abrasive tarmac generates high tire temperatures and accelerates tire wear. The lap is run anti-clockwise, with ten lefts and only four rights, which places higher loads on the left shoulders of the tires, and for the left side of the front tires Sachsenring is the most severe test of the season.
Whilst the rear slick tire options are the same compound specifications as used last time out in Catalunya, the anti-clockwise nature means that the asymmetric compounds are reversed and it is now the left side that is harder to withstand the temperature and loads generated around Sachsenring’s fast and long left-handers, especially the complex from turn 7 to 11 during which riders are accelerating hard, and the final two corners which are very fast.
Sachsenring is very hard on front tires so the hard and extra hard compounds have been selected. It is the first time the extra hard fronts have been used since Qatar, and there are only two other circuits at which they are required: Brno and Sepang.
Often the weather conditions in Germany are mixed for the grand prix, and last year this was no different although the race was run in the dry. Valentino Rossi won from Jorge Lorenzo, followed by Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner. On his way to third, Pedrosa set a new lap record on Bridgestone tires, almost one second faster than his own previous benchmark set in 2007.
Hiroshi Yamada (Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Department) says: "Last year at the German Grand Prix we saw a very close race and some good battles at the front, so I hope that we can see a similar race this time around. Jorge and the Fiat Yamaha Team are proving incredibly strong at this point in the season and go to Germany as the team to beat, but Dani and Casey are both running very strongly of late, as are Andrea and Ben. It was also great to see Loris and Álvaro running well in Catalunya. There have been three different winners at Sachsenring in as many years, so I hope that we will see some good racing and perhaps another new winner."
Tohru Ubukata (Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tire Development Department) says: "Sachsenring starts with two slow right-hand corners but then opens into a series of very high speed long lefts that sweep onto the back straight and to the finish, generating a lot of temperature in the left shoulder of the tires. Owing to the circuit’s anti-clockwise layout, our asymmetric tires comprise a harder compound in the left shoulder of the rear slicks and our improved-for-2010 soft compound in the right to provide good warm-up performance and consistent rider feeling through the four right-hand corners."
"Last year we saw a good mix of rear tire compound selections during the race, which shows that both our hard and extra hard compound options worked well. The demands placed on the tires are very high, some of the highest of the year for both front and rear tires, so ensuring durability over race distance is key and those machine and rider packages who can extract the best from our tires’ characteristics will be very strong."
Bridgestone slick compounds available:
Front: Hard, Extra Hard
Rear: Hard, Extra Hard (asymmetric)