Bridgestone ready for challenging Estoril circuit

One of toughest challenges of the season awaits Bridgestone and their tyres this weekend at the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal, held at the Estoril circuit, close to the Atlantic coast.

The changeable weather conditions often experienced at this event and the Estoril circuit’s four left and nine right-handed corners mean that Bridgestone have to be on their toes in order to supply the most competitive material to the MotoGP teams at round 14.

Tohru Ubukata, Bridgestone’s Motorcycle Tyre Development Department Manager, explains, “Estoril is one of the toughest tracks on the calendar and has a challenging mixture of slow-speed lefts, high-speed rights and interlinking straights that test all aspects of the rider, machine and tyre package. The circuit has a very varied nature throughout each lap which is what makes it challenging, but I am confident that the wider operating range of this year’s tyres will give us a significant advantage this season compared to those previously.”

The Japanese technician continued, “The nature of the track changes from one corner to the next, and the tyres also have to contend with a surface change during the lap after partial resurfacing work conducted in 2006. Again we see some heavy braking points at Estoril, such as into the first corner, so stability from the front tyre is crucial. The use of asymmetric rear tyres is also very important here, mainly to ensure good and consistent grip round the slower left-handers such as the chicane where the riders are accelerating hard on corner exit.”