Michelin target Jerez improvements

Jerez, which again hosts the first European MotoGP round of this weekend, was perhaps the toughest non-flyaway event for Michelin last season.

A lack of rear grip saw riders battle wheelspin at the Spanish circuit, where the best race lap time of 1m 40.090s was over 1.2s slower than the previous year with Bridgestone.

"Jerez is one of the tracks that we are targeting for improvements this season," confirmed Michelin's Piero Taramasso. "It is a low grip circuit, with many directional changes, as well as being quite narrow. The diversity of the corner layout means that we need to offer a tyre with a balanced character to provide good handling from low speed through to high speed corners and from flat turns to changes in elevation, so this makes it quite technical in all aspects."

Michelin's 2017 Jerez allocation will feature soft, medium and hard compound tyres front and rear. The soft and hard rears will have symmetrical compounds, while the medium features a harder right-hand-side.

The alternative stiffer front tyre construction, original planned for testing in Argentina, will then be among the options available during Monday's official post-race test.

"We have a range of tyres that will give us the sort of progress we are looking to make and then on the Monday at the test we will be supplying some new options, as well as giving the riders some existing alternatives to try out and make comparisons with the tyres we already have in the range.

"Jerez itself is an amazing event, full of excitable and colourful fans and it's a race that has given some memorable battles and is certainly a great place to start at in Europe."