MotoGP News - Spanish Tests Close One Year And Begin Another
30/11/2007
Bridgestone riders old and new closed the 2007 season with three days of testing at the Spanish GP circuit of Jerez.
While newcomers gained familiarity with the class-leading tyres, which won 12 of 18 races in 2007, tyre engineers were also gathering data, for further development in the winter months for the new 2008 machines.
With Suzuki and the satellite Ducati team absent, there were still four Bridgestone teams, with the addition of Valentino Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha to the ranks (see separate story).
There were also riders getting used to new machines – like ex-Honda/Bridgestone rider Marco Melandri, getting his first taste of the factory Ducati he will ride next year; and 250 third-place rider Alex de Angelis, who has taken Melandri’s place with the satellite Honda team.
New World Champion Casey Stoner set the pace in early testing, as he got to grips with the 2008 version of the Bridgestone-shod Ducati Desmosedici GP8. But an unlucky spill on the second of three days sent the Australian home early, for treatment to torn shoulder ligaments.
The best Bridgestone times came from Shinya Nakano, de Angelis’s team-mate, who has come back to the Japanese tyres after a year on a satellite Honda. Nakano previously rode for Kawasaki on Bridgestones. Impressively, class rookie de Angelis was next-fastest, in his second outing on the 800cc MotoGP machine.
Bridgestone Motor Sport’s Motorcycle Sport Unit manager Hiroshi Yamada described the final tests as “promising”, as engineers worked with Ducati, Kawasaki, Honda Gresini and Yamaha with new constructions, shapes and compounds for next season, he said.
“Although there are several weeks of testing break, I can assure all of our teams that we will keep pushing back at the factory in Japan over the winter,” he promised.