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As is customary, the Bridgestone media service issued their post-race debrief on tire performance on Tuesday, in which they discuss how the tires they selected held up during the race at Le Mans the previous weekend. This week's press release is more interesting than most, as it contains a denial from Bridgestone that there was anything wrong with the rear tire used by Jorge Lorenzo in the race on Sunday, countering claims that his tire was defective.

Speaking to the media after the race on Sunday, Lorenzo said that although he was not a tire engineer, he could think of no other explanation but a defective tire for the complete lack of rear grip he had suffered throughout the race. The setting they had used in the wet morning warm up had worked well, Lorenzo said. In 2012, under similar conditions, he had not had a single problem, he explained, going on to win the race by nearly 10 seconds. Lorenzo also pointed to the fact that Valentino Rossi had had problems with a tire on Saturday morning, and had that one replaced, as is allowed under the rules if a defective tire is found.

Bridgestone denied on Sunday night that there was a problem with Lorenzo's tire, and have reiterated their stance in the official press release. The tire was examined by both Bridgestone technicians and Yamaha engineers, and found to have normal wear only. Shinji Aoki, manager of Bridgestone's Motorsport Tire Development Department, gave Bridgestone's official response in the press release as follows: "It was clear during the race that Jorge had an issue as he couldn’t keep the same pace as the leading group. Immediately after the race he had a debrief session with his tyre engineer where he explained his lack of rear grip. As is always the case in these situations, his engineer thoroughly examined Jorge’s race tyres which were found to be in good working condition. In addition, I examined the tyre myself and personally discussed the matter with the Yamaha engineers and we all agreed that Jorge’s lack of rear grip was not attributable to his tyre. We received many different comments from the riders after the race on the feeling on the track, even though they all used the same specification of wet tyre and endured the same track conditions. In these low grip situations, machine set up is critical as the smallest setting change can have a big effect on performance."

Whether Lorenzo has changed his mind or not is still unclear, though the 2012 World Champion has gone back and deleted a number of messages he posted on Twitter on Sunday night. No doubt more questions will be asked once the MotoGP paddock arrives at Mugello, in just under two weeks' time.

Below is the full text of the press release issued by Bridgestone today:

French MotoGP™ debrief with Shinji Aoki

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Extra-soft, Soft Rear: Extra-soft (Symmetric), Soft, Medium (Asymmetric)

Bridgestone wet tyre compounds available: Soft (Main), Hard (Alternative)

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa won a wet and wild French Grand Prix ahead of second-placed Cal Crutchlow on the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 M1 and teammate Marc Marquez who was third.

The riders were met with extremely challenging conditions at Le Mans for the fourth Grand Prix of the year, with wet asphalt and a track temperature of just 14°C at the beginning of the race, and a rapidly drying track surface which caused variable grip conditions towards the end of the twenty-eight lap contest.

Q&A with Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department

Cold and wet conditions were forecast for the weekend of the French Grand Prix and this is indeed what happened, can you explain how these conditions affected tyre performance at Le Mans?

“Yes the conditions were as expected but this didn’t make it any easier for the riders! Track temperatures were very cool, as low as 13°C and although we brought our softest tyre compounds to this race, the track didn’t provide the best grip levels, particularly in the morning sessions. The consensus from rider feedback was that tyre warm-up performance over the weekend was good, but even so the cool ambient temperatures and strong breeze meant some riders got caught out during practice and qualifying. The cold conditions also meant that very few riders tried the harder rear slick options as they wanted the best rear grip and warm-up performance possible, which is especially important at Le Mans which has a stop-and-go layout with a lot of acceleration zones.

“Sunday presented a different kind of challenge for the riders as the only time during the race weekend when track conditions were fully wet was at the beginning of the MotoGP race. Although morning warm up was declared wet, it wasn’t raining, so the level of standing water on track was less than at the beginning of the race. With such limited time to find a wet setup and considering that Le Mans requires good levels of rear grip, every rider ended up choosing the softer wet tyres for the race.

No riders selected the harder compound wet tyres for the race, but would this option have worked better towards the end of the race when the track was drier?

“Some riders actually did try the front and rear hard compound wet tyres in morning warm up, and other riders also scrubbed in a set of hard wet weather tyres on the sighting lap just before the race. However, because it was so cold which made the grip level of the circuit very low, every rider decided the soft compound wet tyre was the best choice, and I think this was the right choice given the conditions. Even though the track began to dry towards the end of the race, the rate of abrasion on the soft wet tyre was still within the acceptable range, so I don’t think the harder wet tyre would have given a performance advantage at the latter stages of the race. However, if the track temperature was say, five degrees warmer then I believe we would have seen some riders select the harder wet tyre for the race and this option may have given riders a performance advantage in some areas, particularly when braking.”

Jorge Lorenzo said he had a lack of rear grip during the race; did this have anything to do with his tyre?

“It was clear during the race that Jorge had an issue as he couldn’t keep the same pace as the leading group. Immediately after the race he had a debrief session with his tyre engineer where he explained his lack of rear grip. As is always the case in these situations, his engineer thoroughly examined Jorge’s race tyres which were found to be in good working condition. In addition, I examined the tyre myself and personally discussed the matter with the Yamaha engineers and we all agreed that Jorge’s lack of rear grip was not attributable to his tyre. We received many different comments from the riders after the race on the feeling on the track, even though they all used the same specification of wet tyre and endured the same track conditions. In these low grip situations, machine set up is critical as the smallest setting change can have a big effect on performance. In any case it was a shame for Jorge as he was so strong in morning warm-up and we all expected a better result from him, but he is a champion and I know he will be back to his competitive best at the next race.”

That MotoGP is too Iberocentric - too many Spanish races, and too many Spanish riders - is obvious to all who follow the sport, with the possible exception of a blinkered Spanish journalist or two. The series has to change, to move away from having four races a season in Spain, and to explore new markets in South America and Asia.

This is exactly what is to happen, according to an interview Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta gave to the Reuters news agency on Friday. Reuters reporter Alan Baldwin spoke to Ezpeleta at the Barcelona circuit, where the Dorna CEO was attending the Formula 1 race. In the interview, Ezpeleta laid out his intentions to move away from Spain and, to a lesser extent, the US, and towards Asia and South America, with new races to be held in Brazil and Asia, though as he has done before, Ezpeleta would not be drawn on exactly which Asian country.

The race in Brazil is scheduled to take in Brasilia, the capital of the South American country. Whether that is at the Brasilia race track (the Autódromo Internacional Nelson Piquet in Brasilia) is unclear, but Ezpeleta told Reuters that work was currently underway on the circuit, and the hope was it would be finished by the end of the year. That would make scheduling a race for 2014 difficult, but Ezpeleta was confident that there could be a race in Brazil from 2015 onwards. Ezpeleta did not give any details of the race planned for Asia, but Reuters reporter Baldwin suggests that it could take place in Thailand. Previously, Dorna sources have hinted that a race could take place in Indonesia, though currently, neither country has a circuit that would pass an FIM safety inspection. Given the explosion of interest in the sport in the region, however, that could change quickly.

To make room for the two new races - three, including the race at the Termas de Rio Hondo circuit in Argentina planned for 2014 - something will have to give on the current schedule. The obvious candidates are in Spain and the US, with Ezpeleta indicating that four races in Spain and three in the US were too many. In Spain, the Valencia circuit looks to be the most likely victim, as the track facing the largest financial problems. Schemes have been sugggested in the past where Valencia and Barcelona could alternate annually, as Formula 1 is expected to do in the future. In the US, the Indianapolis race is most at threat, with Ezpeleta commenting positively on both the Austin and Laguna Seca circuits. Dorna has a five-year contract with the Austin facility, and Ezpeleta describing the Laguna Seca event as 'special'. Given that California is central to the US sport bike market, not having a race in the state is impossible to imagine.

This leaves the Indianapolis Motor Speedway out in the cold. Despite the enormous effort which the facility has put into the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix every year it has been held, MotoGP always looks a little lost. This is in part due to the vastness of the track: at a facility capable of holding some 400,000, even respectable crowds of 80,000 plus - nearly double race day attendance at Misano, for example - look swamped. The layout of the road course is also unloved among the riders, perhaps because it is run in the opposition direction to the way it was originally laid yout, when IMS hosted Formula 1. The combination with the Indy Mile and the excellent atmosphere downtown will probably not be sufficient to save the event, despite the fact that IMS is very keen to continue to organize the event.

Ezpeleta also addressed the issue of the number of Spanish riders in MotoGP. It was not a situation of Dorna's making, Ezpeleta told Reuters: "In the history of Dorna, we never helped any Spanish people to race and we helped a lot of non-Spanish people," he said. He pointed to the support Dorna has given to other nationalities, but emphasized that the real solution must come from elsewhere. The Red Bull Rookies is one example of this: recent graduates of the series include a Belgian, two Germans, a Malaysian and an Australian (of Greek extraction). The current leader of the series is Karel Hanika, a young Czech rider universally tipped as one of the most talented riders to come up through the series in many years.

Hector Barbera and his 23-year-old girlfriend have both been convicted of assault in a summary justice procedure in the Spanish courts. An altercation between the couple in a hotel in Jerez got out of hand late Thursday night, resulting in physical violence between the two, leading to them both being convicted for assault. Barbera was given a sentence of six months, and his girlfriend, referred to in reports only by her initials D.P., received a sentence of five months, both of which were commuted to fourteen months' community service, Spanish media are reporting.

According to the reports in the Spanish press, Barbera and his girlfriend had elected to stay on in Jerez for a week, to visit the annual horse fair which started directly after the weekend of the Spanish Grand Prix. The couple had returned to their hotel in Jerez late at night, where a dispute had broken out between the two. According to respected Spanish daily ABC, the argument had started when Barbera's girlfriend D.P. had told the Avintia Blusens rider that she wished to end the relationship. The altercation grew heated, and according to D.P., Barbera grabbed her by the throat, upon which a scuffle between the two had broken out, and she then bit him. Friends of the couple were then called, and the incident reported to the police. D.P. went to hospital for a check up, but her injuries fortunately proved to be just bruising and a bump on the head where she had fallen.

On Friday morning, Barbera and his girlfriend appeared before a summary court set up especially to deal with domestic violence, which remains a serious problem in Spain. When convicting the couple of mutual assault, the judge found that the case was not one of gender-related assault, but merely an argument that had gotten out of hand, and resulted in the two parties both inflicting physical violence upon each other. 

The team has yet to issue an official statement on the case, but which Barbera sentenced to community service, his participation in the rest of the season should not be in jeopardy.

After the final corner incident between Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo, the media spent the afternoon canvassing opinion from anyone they could find in the paddock, to ask how they felt about the incident. Below is a selection of the responses, split between riders and team staff. Cal Crutchlow, Bradley Smith and Valentino Rossi represent rider opinion, while Herve Poncharal, Livio Suppo and Wilco Zeelenberg speak for the teams.

Cal Crutchlow, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider

At the end of the day, it's racing. I don't think Marquez did anything wrong. If Jorge had the opportunity, he'd do exactly the same. Marquez never rode into the side of him meaning to hit him. He ran a little bit deep, and Jorge was there, and that's it. You think Jorge has never run a little deep and ran into somebody? You think he won't for the rest of his career? At some point in racing it's going to happen. But if it happened to me, I'd probably be pissed off for half the slowdown lap, but then you've got to think about it in the sense of, I could have done it to somebody.

You don't think Marquez is a dangerous rider?

Not in any way, shape or form. No. He's a hard rider, there's a difference.

If you've got a load of bikes going round on a track at the same time, something's going to happen. As long as it doesn't happen in practice and qualifying, because there's no need for it then. But in the race, of course, you're battling. It's weird to race by giving each other positions and saying you're happy with third, because you're not happy with third.

Valentino Rossi, Yamaha Factory Racing rider

I saw the last corner just one time, so I don't know exactly. But it looks like, is the last corner on the last lap. Marquez tries very hard, it looks like Jorge leaves space on the inside, Marc tried to go in, they touch, and you know it's normal that Jorge is upset, especially now after the race, but this is racing. It's the last lap, it's the last corner, and sometimes the guy behind try very hard, and it finish like this.

Bradley Smith, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider

Racing incident. If you're going to leave the door open like that and invite someone through, at the end of the day, if you've come from 125 and Moto2, you learn that if a gap's shown to you like that, you take it. I mean we go for tiny gaps, so when it's that wide, you don't hesitate.

I don't think Moto2 is necessarily breeding a more aggressive type of rider, I think let's be honest, Jorge has been a world champion for a number of years from 250s, he's not had to race. When he catches someone, he passes them, he leaves them. Or he rides around on his own and disappears into the distance. You lose that last little bit of aggressiveness. Let's be honest, his last serious race, you're probably looking at 2005, Motegi? Where like it was tooth and nail, back and forth with De Angelis and Pedrosa and those boys. So that's what we're probably looking at. But at the end of the day, Marquez was looking a little bit lairy all race, was nearly in the back of him a few times.

At the end of the day, if you don't want someone to pass, you cover you're inside line. That's like the first rule of last corner. You're the one that takes the inside, if he wants to go round the outside, that's up to him.

Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha Factory Racing team manager, and team manager to Jorge Lorenzo

It was a hard move, but this isn't tennis, and if Race Direction decide not to do anything about it, then I can offer my opinion, but we just have to accept it, swallow it and carry on. I'm glad he didn't fall, because then Marc would probably have been given a penalty, because that move was fairly over the limit. If Jorge hadn't been there, Marc would have ended up somewhere in the grandstands, because he definitely used him as a berm to help him turn.

What should Jorge have done differently?

He should have shut the door a bit more. We discussed that. He kept to the left after coming out of the fast right hander, but then moved to the right, a bit too far, and that opened a gap. There wasn't really any room, because Marquez would never have made the corner. Jorge was supposed to take that corner in first gear, to block and hold the tight line, get off the brakes earlier, to ensure he couldn't get by. Unfortunately, he thought that Marc was not going to try to get by here.

It has nothing to do with the different riding styles and lines of the Honda and the Yamaha. Marc just thought, I'll try and see where I end up. Luckily for both of them, it ended up OK, because if he had crashed, then he would have been given a penalty. [Race Direction] spoke about the pass for a long time. Dani and Jorge would never have tried to pull such a stunt, they don't use their opponents as berms to try to make the corner, and that's a bit what happened here. It's not a contact sport, and this sort of thing happens, but if they don't act against it, it gets accepted, which I think is a bad thing.

We keep talking about mistakes, and they are mistakes by Marc, errors of judgment, but so far, he has got away with it.

Herve Poncharal, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha team boss

There are some tracks like Jerez or Assen, where in the last corner always a lot of things happen, and everyone remembers. Everyone remembers Vale [Rossi] on Sete [Gibernau], Colin's [Edwards] last corner at Assen, or two weeks' ago, in Superbikes, they had some incredible moves there. So this track is like that, and I think that if I was Jorge's manager, I would say, this is a little bit too much and this is not what we are here for, and if I was Marc's manager, I would say, you had a chance and you try, and this is why you come here, you have to show fighting spirit to the very last corner. This is what he did.

For me I would say 50/50. For sure Jorge was may a bit too confident, a bit too cautious, but if he had braked very late, maybe he would have been a bit wide, and opened even more room for Marquez. But if you're Marquez, you do it, there was a possibility, he arrived from very far behind and he was faster on the brake. I don't think Jorge was expecting that, he thought he was in control, but Marquez is quite special. When it's Dani and Jorge and Vale, they are a bit more experienced and maybe a bit 'cleaner', but Marquez is from Moto2 and Marquez is 19, and Marquez is a young lion who is so hungry.

Livio Suppo, Repsol Honda Team Principal

There was some space, and in that corner, it's not the first time and it's not the last time that something happens there. Honestly I don't think, in my opinion is less aggressive than what happen between Vale and Sete in 2005. And nothing happened then, I can't see why should something happen now.