Michelin hopes for performance breakthrough

Tyre manufacturer Michelin is hoping that it can make a breakthrough in unlocking more performance from its tyres during this week's post-race test at Brno

The French company saw rival Bridgestone dominate the Czech Republic Grand Prix on Sunday, with Michelin's leading runner world champion Nicky Hayden unable to do anything about the pace of Ducati's Casey Stoner or Suzuki's John Hopkins.

And with Valentino Rossi also struggling for pace, Michelin's director of motorcycle racing Jean-Philippe Weber is hoping that today's test will provide some answers as to Michelin's current difficulties.

"Nicky's race wasn't so bad but we should have been doing 1m 58s," said Weber. "The performance of our tyres in the first few laps wasn't good enough and that's one thing we have to work on.

"Also, like last year here, the consistency of the lap times wasn't so good, the pace got slower and slower at the end of the race for pretty much everyone, but it was worse for us.

"Based on what we experienced we now have to look towards our tests here over the next two days. We have new constructions and new compounds to test and we will be working on long runs to see how the tyre performance changes lap by lap.

"We already tested these new tyres with our own test riders, now we need to confirm their performance. If our top riders like the tyres we will keep going in that direction, which will be a new generation of tyres.

"With the 800s you have to maintain side grip, you have to make the rider confident at maximum angle so he can open the throttle very early in the corner. That way you exit the corner much better and you get more top speed. That's the philosophy we have to follow."