Yamada welcomes tyre war.

Bridgestone's Hiroshi Yamada has said that the battle between rival tyre manufacturers is good for his company, as well as for MotoGP, despite up-and-down results in the past two rounds.

Although Casey Stoner cruised to victory at the Red Bull US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca on the Japanese company's rubber, he was little threat to Michelin-shod Dani Pedrosa in the German GP at the Sachsenring, but Yamada said that Bridgestone was enjoying the extra challenge of competition - something it has been deprived of in Formula One.

Bridgestone's Hiroshi Yamada has said that the battle between rival tyre manufacturers is good for his company, as well as for MotoGP, despite up-and-down results in the past two rounds.

Although Casey Stoner cruised to victory at the Red Bull US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca on the Japanese company's rubber, he was little threat to Michelin-shod Dani Pedrosa in the German GP at the Sachsenring, but Yamada said that Bridgestone was enjoying the extra challenge of competition - something it has been deprived of in Formula One.

"Tyres have always played a vital role in motorcycle racing, as it is the sole component of a motorcycle which directly transfers the bike's energy through to the track surface," he reasoned, "The so called 'tyre war' is a welcome situation for us as we are able to showcase our technical abilities in a competitive environment against other tyre manufacturers."

And, despite the unpredictable nature of recent races, he also remained in favour of the tyre rules implemented at the start of the season, governing testing and the number of tyres available to each rider in an effort to contain costs.

"The new tyre restrictions were developed based on joint discussions with all three tyre manufacturers involved in MotoGP and, after eleven races, we are still supportive of the regulations," he confirmed, "I think they have promoted a more even playing field and a greater competition among the tyre manufacturers and teams. From Bridgestone's point of view, the new restrictions add an extra dimension to our approach, which is as interesting for the fans and spectators as it is challenging for tyre
manufacturers, teams and riders."

Bridgestone-shod riders locked out the top three positions at Laguna Seca, with Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen taking second position and Honda Gresini's Marco Melandri third behind the runaway Stoner, but it was left to the Australian's Ducati team-mate, Loris Capirossi, to salvage some pride in Germany.

"These last two race weekends, in Germany and the USA, have certainly been met with contrasting fortunes by Bridgestone," Yamada agreed, "We had some difficulties at the newly-resurfaced Sachsenring two weeks ago, but Loris did a great job to get second place, which was definitely a consolation for us. However, our tyres performed extremely well around Laguna Seca and Casey's victory represented the first time that a rider on our tyres has finished on the podium at that circuit, let alone taken the
win. The fact that Chris and Marco also achieved great podium results really underlined our performance level. Overall, it has been like a game of two halves for us with important lessons learned from both weekends.

"We were certainly not satisfied with the performance of the tyres in Sachsenring, but Loris's second place shows that our tyres can still help the riders achieve good results even if conditions are not ideal. I always prefer to be cautious when approaching each weekend because every track offers different challenges. There are many variables that could affect tyre performance and the new tyre regulations leave little room for error, which is an exciting challenge for our technicians. The competitiveness of our tyres in Laguna Seca proves that our approach to the weekend was correct and our tyres were able to help our riders to secure the top three spots on the podium and other strong points-scoring results.

"The qualifying results were especially pleasing [at Laguna Seca], with Casey on pole and Chris also on the front row in third place. The interesting part was that the qualifying tyres did not give a large increase in performance compared to the race tyres. Chris, for example, set his fastest lap of the session on race tyres and still he was able to claim a front row position. In fact, such was the competitive nature of the race tyres that Casey set the fastest lap of the entire weekend in the high 1min 21s on race tyres during Sunday morning's warm-up session, some three-tenths quicker than his pole time. It was also a great relief to see Casey break the so-called pole jinx that has been a prominent part of this season."

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