Honours even in tyre war

The change in engine capacity put pressure on the tyre suppliers as the less powerful bikes could now carry much more speed into the corners. The final winter tests seemed to indicate that Michelin had the advantage, with Yamaha and Repsol Honda looking like the teams to beat, while several Bridgestone runners called upon the Japanese manufacturer to make improvements, especially to their qualifying tyres.

But Bridgestone user Casey Stoner qualified on the front row with the Michelin-shod Yamahas at Losail, then beat Valentino Rossi to victory in the race, setting a new track record on the final lap. Rossi and Dani Pedrosa's Michelin bikes filled the rest of the podium positions, with Bridgestone's John Hopkins and Marco Melandri completing the top five.

"Our tyres have coupled well with our teams' bikes to produce some strong overall packages," said Bridgestone's director of development Hirohide Hamashima.

"The victory with Casey and Ducati, as well as the fantastic results for Suzuki and Honda Gresini today show that we have followed the correct direction with regard to our development for the 800cc bikes and the new tyre regulations. The gap with our competitors is still very close so we must continue to work even harder to maintain this momentum."

Michelin's motorcycle racing boss Jean-Philippe Weber suggested that his company's advantage might have been masked by the Bridgestone-shod Ducati's superior horsepower. Rossi was able to overtake Stoner under braking on several occasions, but was always repassed on the main straight.

"Valentino was very fast in the corners, and even with 15km/h less on the straights he was always right with Stoner, which made it an exciting race," said Weber.

"Valentino rode aggressively, we had very good edge grip which remained consistent throughout. This was also the first race with our 16in front and everyone was happy with the tyre's handling and grip."