Bridgestone to use new-spec tyre

Despite Chris Vermeulen's surprise pole position at the circuit last year in the wet, riders on the Japanese rubber struggled during the dry race, and the company believe that they can turn things around this year.

Hiroshi Yamada, manager of Bridgestone's motorcycle sport department, believes that the tyre manufacturer also needs to improve their performance for the following round at Shanghai, and he is confident that the new tyres are the right way to go.

"Looking back to last year's results, we need more grip and consistency for our tyres," he said.

"We have decided to bring the next generation of compound for Turkey and China, the direction for which we were able to verify on the second day of the post-Jerez test."

Yamada also believes that the next two races on the calendar will pose the first real test for the teams regarding the new rules limiting the number of tyres that can be used, as there has been no pre-season testing at either venue.

"It is relatively easy to decide tyre specifications when we have a good result in the pre-race test," he said. "We can decide the line-up of race tyres more precisely in those circumstances.

"From that point of view, Qatar was more straightforward than Turkey and China will be because we have no data with 800cc bikes or 2007 specification tyres at these circuits."

Yamada added that making a decision for Jerez was not as easy as it was in Qatar, because of the different weather conditions during the test at the Spanish circuit.

However, Bridgestone have made their initial decisions for the next two races based on the most recent test at Jerez, and they will make a definitive choice in the week leading up to each race.