Bridgestone thrilled with 1-2-3 finish

The Rizla Suzuki rider won a wet French Grand Prix at Le Mans' Bugatti circuit ahead of Marco Melandri on Honda Gresini, and championship leader Casey Stoner on Marlboro Ducati.

This marks Bridgestone's fourth win in five races this season, the Japanese manufacturer having lost only the Spanish Grand Prix with Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi winning at Jerez.

The Turkish Grand Prix one month ago marked the only other time Bridgestone riders filled all places on the podium.

"We are very pleased with the overall result this weekend after what was an eventful and difficult race for all riders," said Yamada, manager of Bridgestone's motorcycle sport department.

"We are thrilled to see the fourth win on our tyres this season and our congratulations must go firstly to the Suzuki team and especially Chris Vermeulen for his tremendous debut victory.

"Thanks to Marco Melandri and Honda Gresini, as well as Casey Stoner and Ducati for such exceptional results today. Their efforts have helped us score the second Bridgestone 1-2-3 in just three races.

"All in all, I think we can reflect on a job well done this weekend in a wide range of conditions and it has been especially enjoyable to take our first ever win in France in such fashion."

Tohru Ubukata, Bridgestone's manager of motorcycle race tyre development, added: "I am really happy for this weekend's performance, because our slick tyres were competitive in the dry practice sessions and we were looking good in race trim.

"In the end though, we were faced with very different and difficult wet conditions. We were able to use our latest specification wet weather tyres and could reap the benefits from the wet tyre test we carried out in Jerez in March.

"I think we would have been well placed to score a good result whatever the conditions this afternoon, but the competitiveness of our wet weather tyres was particularly satisfying. We have put a lot of work into our wet tyre development and today's result - our first win in wet conditions - shows that we have found a good direction.

"The season is long and technical development is ongoing for race and qualifying tyres. We have a two day test session here in France from tomorrow and we look forward to continuing in this positive direction."