Michelin Sounds the All-Clear for Italian GP

Formula One tyre makers Michelin believe high-speed blowouts at the last Belgian Grand Prix and in recent Monza tests were due to sharp kerbs and human error.

"We are very confident that we don't have a problem," spokesman Andy Pope said before Sunday's Italian Grand Prix, the last European race of the season and the fastest on the calendar.

Michelin teams suffered a series of failures at Spa-Francorchamps on August 29, with BAR boss David Richards and his British driver Jenson Button calling for an urgent investigation before Monza.

Cars hit speeds in excess of 340kph at the circuit near Milan.

Toyota's French driver Olivier Panis crashed in testing there last week when a rear tyre deflated suddenly, while Renault's Italian Jarno Trulli was called in by his team when a similar problem became apparent.

"Missing valve caps were clearly to blame on both occasions," Michelin motorsport director Pierre Dupasquier said in a statement of the Monza incidents.

Pope said that could be put down to human error, with teams responsible for final checks.

Of the Spa blowouts, Dupasquier said Michelin's post-race investigation had found no clear technical reason for the problems other than sharp kerbs at the circuit.

"That's good news in a way because we have not been able to identify any technical errors on our part but at the same time it is frustrating because we have not been able to reach any definitive technical conclusions," said Dupasquier.

Button was one of four drivers on Michelin tyres to experience problems at Spa, the Briton crashing out at high speed when a blowout pitched his BAR into Hungarian Zsolt Baumgartner's Minardi.

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, whose team uses Bridgestone tyres, also crashed at high speed in testing at Monza last week when a rear tyre failed.