2014 Jerez MotoGP Bridgestone Race Report
When Marc Marquez arrived in his home country for Jerez MotoGP, the 21-year old Repsol Honda rider had much incentive for victory. The Spaniard had a perfect record of wins following pure domination at the opening three rounds, and he was starting his 100th-career GP.
And after taking his fourth pole in as many rounds, the reigning MotoGP Champion duplicated this performance in races, taking his fourth-straight victory of 2014 MotoGP.
Marquez swapped the lead a few times with nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi, but by the end of lap two, he had a comfortable lead. He built a a four-second lead over Rossi, but eventually finished 1.431 seconds ahead of the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP pilot. Marquez’s teammate took third, finishing 0.098 of a second behind Rossi.
Bridgestone reports that all riders were on a medium-compound rear slick. On the podium, Marquez and Pedrosa used a medium-compound front slick, and Rossi a hard front.
Bridgestone says hot and dry conditions were present for the 27-lap lap Spanish Grand Prix and during the race the track temperature reached its highest level of the weekend at 55°C. Although conditions were extremely hot, all three asymmetric rear slick options supplied this weekend worked well on the greasy track surface and were used during the race.
The extra-soft rear slick was the most popular choice with ten riders selecting this option for the race. The soft rear slick was selected by seven riders, with the remaining six riders opting for the medium compound rear. Front tyre choice showed a strong preference for the medium compound option, with twenty of the 23 entrants choosing this option, Bridgestone says.
Following is some further analysis from Bridgestone:
Kyota Futami (General Manager, Global Motorsport Department, Bridgestone Corporation) says “Repsol Honda and Marc dominated another race weekend and I’d like to congratulate Marc on winning his first ever Grand Prix at Jerez.
“This is such a fantastic venue for racing and this weekend was no exception, with the largest crowd in the last few years coming out to support the MotoGP riders. Both our front and rear tire allocation for this race was changed from last year, and I am happy that it was received well by the riders.
“It was unfortunate to hear Danilo broke his wrist in his accident during Warm Up and I hope that he makes a quick recovery and is back on his bike soon. The next round is at Le Mans which in terms of layout is very different from Jerez, so it will be interesting to see if this will enable another rider to make a strong challenge for the race victory.”
Masao Azuma (Chief Engineer, Bridgestone Motorsport Tire Development Department) says “It was very hot all weekend but the conditions were consistent each day which meant the teams and riders had a lot of opportunities to evaluate their tyre options for the race. Jerez can be a difficult circuit when the temperatures are high, but our new expanded front tire allocation ensured the riders had options to manage the challenging conditions.
“It was good to see that all three rear slick options we brought to Jerez performed well in the race and I hope we see similar variation in race tyre choice for the next round at Le Mans. For now our technical team will be on hand to assist the MotoGP test at Jerez tomorrow and once again it looks like it will be very hot here.”
Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda RC213V MotoGP Pilot) says: “Of course I’m really happy. It was a different kind of victory as at this circuit I struggled a little bit during the weekend. Everyone was so close in the race but at the beginning on the new tires I felt good so I could push hard to create a gap as I knew at the end of the race Dani and Valentino would be strong. It was a special victory and we are in a good moment, so now we need to try and keep our advantage.”
Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium & Hard; Rear: Extra-soft, Soft & Medium (Asymmetric)
Bridgestone wet tire compounds available: Hard (Main), Soft (Alternative – front), Extra-hard (Alternative – rear)
Weather: Dry. Ambient 28-29°C; Track 54-55°C (Bridgestone measurement)
