PREVIEW OF JAPANESE GRAND PRIX
 After
a good performance from both Honda Gresini riders in the race
at Estoril, which featured memorable battles of Marco Melandri
with Nicky Hayden and John Hopkins and a good fight-back from
Toni Elias, the pair are looking forward with renewed motivation
to the Grand Prix of Japan, the 15th round of the MotoGP World
Championship. Melandri and Elias are ready for the appointment
at the Twin Ring Motegi, a special occasion for the Honda
riders, motivated to get a good result on the track that belongs
to the Japanese Factory.
MARCO MELANDRI: "Now there are four
rounds left to dispute on very demanding tracks. In particular
Motegi requires lots of acceleration. I'm very motivated.
I'd like to score a good result to thank Fausto (Gresini)
and the team for their great job. The feeling with the bike
is improved and also Bridgestone tyres should work very well:
Bridgestone tyres dominated here in the last 3 years, so I'm
confident. We will work hard to get the best out of the bike
and to use all its potential. Not only, in Portugal I was
still suffering a bit from the consequences of the crash at
Misano, in Japan I should be 100 per cent fit .I have started
to train again and I have to confess that it was not easy
at the beginning after more than 2 months (from the incident
in Laguna Seca) of forced stop."
TONI ELIAS: "Motegi is a track that
I like and where I have got good results with two wins in
250cc class. I hope that we can finally get some good results
and turn positively this season complicated by a bad crash
at Assen and the injyry at the left leg. The team is doing
a great job and my feeling with the bike is improving. At
Motegi is very important to find a good set up of the bike.
Because of the strong braking, it's important to have a good
balance on the bike. The secret in fact is to find compromise
between braking and acceleration. I'm confident and motivated
."
FOCUS: A SPECIAL GP FOR BRIDGESTONE. The
Japanese Gran Prix is a special event for the Honda Gresini
team because it takes place on the track that belongs to Honda
and because it is an important appoint for Bridgestone. With
its technical centre in Kodaira on the outskirts of Tokyo
and its headquarters in the city centre itself, in fact the
Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi is a home race for Honda Gresini's
tyre supplier Bridgestone. Motegi has seen some of Bridgestone's
most memorable achievements with three consecutive victories
since 2004, one for Honda rider Makoto Tamada and two for
Loris Capirossi. Now in just its sixth season in MotoGP, Bridgestone
has seen 17 victories on its tyres and 20 pole positions.
Marco Melandri and Toni Elias's podiums this season in Istanbul,
Le Mans, Laguna Seca have helped take the total number of
podium results on Bridgestone tyres to 48 in this period.
Around 100 people work on the company's MotoGP project at
the technical centre in Kodaira where all of Bridgestone's
MotoGP and Formula 1 tyres are designed and manufactured throughout
the gruelling racing season. A team of 17 staff are responsible
for Bridgestone on-site MotoGP activities with 7 people dedicated
to the technical side, 7 on logistics and tyre fitting, 2
representatives from head office and 1 press officer. Around
20,000 MotoGP tyres are constructed each year to cover the
18 races on the calendar, as well as post-race and winter
testing programmes.
THE NUMBERS
Number of tyres at each GP event approx. 1,000
Number of tyres scanned each weekend 310
Number of tyres scanned during season 5,580
Number of tyres fitted and balanced on set-up day approx.
140
Number of staff working on Bridgestone MotoGP approx. 100
Number of fitting staff on event 6
Total number of staff on event around 17
Operating temperature of a MotoGP tyre around 100C
Number of tyres produced per year approx. 20,000
Number of tyres a fitter can fit in one hour approx. 12
THE TRACK
Built:1997
Last modified:1999
Lenght:4.801 m
Width: 15 m
Pole position:left
Right Curves: 8
Left Curves:6
Straight: 762 m
RECORD:
Record:2006 Rossi (Yamaha) 1'47"288
Pole position: 2006 Capirossi (Ducati) 1'45"724
2006 Race :1° Capirossi (Ducati) 2° Rossi (yamaha)
3° Melandri (Honda)
Motogp race: 24 laps, 115,224 km
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