Capirossi hails Bridgestone superiority

The works GP7s finished first and third with Casey Stoner and Capirossi, while Alex Barros took fourth for the satellite Pramac D'Antin team.

Bridgestone-tyred bikes filled the top six positions, with Nicky Hayden the best Michelin rider in seventh.

"This is the biggest step we've done with the 800cc bikes," Capirossi told autosport.com.

"Because these bikes have less torque compared to the 1000ccs, so we use less tyres, and Bridgestone did a great job.

"We had three different (specifications of) tyres here, and all three would have made the race. We can take this front tyres to another five races."

The first lap accident removed Michelin-shod Colin Edwards and Dani Pedrosa from the race, but Valentino Rossi - who struggled to 10th after his tyres faded in the middle of the race - reckoned they too would have been hard-pressed to challenge Bridgestone's superiority had they continued.

"It would have been nice to see what Pedrosa and Edwards could have done, but I'm convinced they couldn't have done much better than me either," Rossi told Italia1.

"Bridgestone today had a great advantage over us in stability, and at some points they would go so much quicker."