Aprilia: “Nobody knows” if hard tyre solves Motegi MotoGP blistering
Aprilia backed Michelin’s emergency MotoGP tyre measures at Motegi but warned the hard rear remains unproven over a full race distance.
Aprilia team manager Paolo Bonora backed Michelin’s request to extend the Motegi MotoGP warm-up after tyre blistering problems in Saturday’s Sprint.
But with the 20-minute session still less than half a grand prix distance, Bonora warned that “nobody knows” whether the hard rear will solve the issue.
Michelin withdrew the soft rear after severe heat-related blistering affected riders including Aprilia title leader Jorge Martin and Ducati’s Pecco Bagnaia late in the Sprint.
The medium remains available, although Michelin is recommending the reinforced hard rear for Sunday’s grand prix.
That tyre had not been used at all before Sunday morning, prompting warm-up to be doubled in length.
But even riders who stayed on the same rear throughout the session were unable to test it over anything approaching a full race distance.
Aprilia riders Martin and Marco Bezzecchi, along with Sprint winner Marc Marquez, tried both rear compounds, leaving them with only around five to seven laps on the hard.
The most any rider completed on the hard was 12 laps, exactly half of Sunday’s grand prix distance.
Bonora warned that blistering tends to appear later in a race and can quickly become “exponential”.
“Nobody knows”
“As everybody has seen, there were many, many riders with tyre issues. [in the Sprint],” Bonora told MotoGP pit lane reporter Jack Appleyard in warm-up.
“Michelin was prepared for this because they brought three types of tyre. So this morning, they asked to make a longer warm-up to test the hard tyre.
“To be honest, [the warm-up] will not be a final decision to understand if the hard compound will be the solution for this problem.
“Because the race length is much, much higher. And this kind of blistering problem can occur in the second part of the race.
“So who knows what happens this afternoon.
“For sure, Michelin did the right thing to ask for a longer time for the warm-up, and to bring this tyre because this carcass has more potential to fix this issue
“But nobody knows after this warm-up session.”
Marquez went on to lead warm-up on the hard rear, a surprise after Ducati struggled on the same tyre last time in Austria.
Bezzecchi and pole qualifier Martin were second and third fastest, although both set their best times on the medium.
Bezzecchi had been quickest on the medium in final practice and liked it enough to join only Jack Miller in using it for the Sprint.
But the Italian was unable to reproduce that pace and finished a subdued sixth, while Miller later revealed he had suffered significant blistering even on the medium.
“This [blistering] problem can occur suddenly and is something exponential. So once it starts, it starts to be not manageable,” Bonora added.
Safety first
Bonora stressed that safety would ultimately take priority over outright performance when teams make their tyre choice for the grand prix.
“When you bring two or three tyres and one performs more than the others, it's a difficult choice [not to use it],” Bonora said.
“To be honest, this test this morning is to check with the riders if the performance is still consistent with the hard one.
“But safety is the first priority, and we have to see all the riders getting to the garage at the end of the race in a safe condition.”
Martin will start the Japanese Grand Prix just seven points ahead of Marquez.
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
