By Peter McLaren

Tech 3 team principal Herve Poncharal believes that the 2008 MotoGP World Championship will see more winners, and generally closer competition, than the often-criticised first season of 800cc racing.

Last year's 18 rounds saw wins split between five riders - Casey Stoner (10), Valentino Rossi (4), Dani Pedrosa (2), Chris Vermeulen (1) and Loris Capirossi (1) - but all too often there was a clear level of inequality between the leading contenders, partly due to the contrasting fortunes of the two main tyre brands.

However, reflecting on what he'd seen at the first 2008 test, held last week at Sepang test, Poncharal predicts a much more balanced battle ahead - between tyres, manufacturers and riders.

"It's too early to take any firm conclusions; the only thing we can say is that the championship is going to be wide open because on the tyre department it's a strong battle - I think it is very close at the moment - and from the machine/rider point of view I would say it's also very open," Poncharal told Crash.net.

"Last year there were five winners, but realistically only three guys could expect to be there - Valentino, Casey and Dani. I think fortunately we could see a lot more race winners this year and the championship a lot more open and exciting," added Herve, whose satellite Yamaha team will use Michelin tyres this season.

Tohru Ubukata, manager of Motorcycle Race Tyre Development at defending champion's Bridgestone, agreed with Poncharal.

"It is never easy nor really accurate to draw conclusions after [the first 2008] test, but the results do give some early indications that the MotoGP field is very competitive already," he said. "The competition looks set to be very tough this season, so we are not taking anything as guaranteed. From a tyre point of view, we expect a big effort from our very experienced rivals."

Honda's Nicky Hayden left the test fastest for Michelin on qualifying tyres, but Ducati's world champion Casey Stoner set the pace for Bridgestone with race rubber.

The top five lap times, on both qualifying and race tyres, contained four different manufacturers.