Bridgestone: Tyre failures a total surprise.

Bridgestone have pledged to quickly find the source of Shinya Nakano's catastrophic rear tyre failure during yesterday's Italian Grand Prix, which saw the Kawasaki star thrown from his machine at 190mph along the Mugello main straight.

The cause of the accident - in which Nakano miraculously escaped serious injury - was later revealed as a 'chunk out' problem, and would also end the hopes of fellow Bridgestone rider Makoto Tamada just one lap later.

The Camel Honda star had repeatedly taken the lead from world champion Valentino Rossi and looked set for a strong podium finish - or even victory - when a chunk of his rear tyre tread came off at the end of the same ultra-fast main straight. Fortunately, Tamada was able to bring his machine to a halt safely.

"Today's problems were a bitter experience for all of us, and we are very sorry for Shinya, who suffered a terrible crash at the fastest point of the track, and Makoto, who missed out on a podium finish," began Hiroshi Yamada, motorcycle racing manager for Bridgestone Motorsport. "Our main consolation is that neither of them got hurt.

"Chunk out problems like that are extremely rare, and we were convinced we had this demanding highspeed track well under control when all our riders enjoyed promising and trouble-free practice sessions.

"Our tyres seemed to work especially well with track and air temperatures that were quite similar to the race conditions today. To see Makoto take the race lead and resist the attacks of Valentino Rossi seemed to confirm the good performance of our tyres.

"What happened then caught us completely by surprise. We are now going to analyse the occurrences very carefully. We will find the weak point in the construction, and solve the problem as quickly as possible," concluded Yamada.

Bridgestone now have just five days to find solutions, and calm rider fears, before first qualifying for the Catalan Grand Prix takes place this Friday.