At last month's Japanese GP the French tyre brand had looked ready to back up its one-two finish at the previous Portuguese GP, after its top riders had ruled practice and qualifying. But rainy race-day weather upset the Motegi order and the highest placed Michelin rider,
Nicky Hayden, finished just ninth.
With a single-tyre proposal, unpopular with the tyre manufacturers, now being actively discussed to level the playing field in
MotoGP next season, Michelin will want to prove that such drastic action is unnecessary by taking the fight to
Bridgestone in the final three rounds - starting with the 'biggest challenge' of the year.
"Phillip Island is the biggest challenge of the year for the tyre companies," said Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin's director of motorcycle racing. "It is a big challenge because the circuit layout is the most demanding on tyres, producing the highest operating temperatures of the MotoGP season. The track is dominated by several fast and long left-handers which riders attack with a lot of speed and a lot of throttle, so the heat build-up in the left side of the tyres is quite big. The corner onto the start finish and the exit of Southern Loop probably put the most heat into the tyres.
"The circuit is also quite asymmetric, with only a few right-handers, so this adds to the challenge, especially since conditions can be quite cold at this time of year, so you also need good warm-up performance, especially on the right side of the tyres and especially in the mornings when conditions are cooler. Finally, the weather can be quite unpredictable, as we saw last year, which further complicates the situation.
