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MotoGP, Michelin: Misano "heats up" the tyres

The front tyres are put under particular stress, while the possibility of rain is not ruled out

MotoGP: Michelin: Misano "heats up" the tyres

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Leaving the wet (and ill-fated) Silverstone behind, Michelin prepares for the San Marino GP, hoping that the Italian weather will remain sunny over the race weekend. The Misano circuit is 5245 metres long, with 6 left-handers and 10 right-handers, its layout combining fast, flowing sections with other slower parts, the asphalt of average abrasion.

The Clermont-Ferrand technicians will provide riders with front tyres of a symmetrical construction, while the rears will be asymmetric, with a harder right side. All the slicks will be available as soft, medium and hard compounds, as usual.

In case of rain, the tyres will be soft and medium, with a symmetrical construction at the front, while the rear solutions will be extra-soft and soft (the latter asymmetric).

One last interesting fact: this year's MotoGP will play out over a distance of 27 laps, one less than in previous years.

“After everything that happened at Silverstone and here in Misano last year, we are hoping for some better weather in Italy this week -- Michelin manager Piero Taramasso has his fingers crossed - Misano is a demanding track that can create quite high temperatures from the rubber, especially on the front tyres as the bikes spend a lot of time leant over, so we need to have compounds which meet these demands.

In 2016 we had a very impressive performance here on our return and we hoped to improve on that in 2017, but the weather had other ideas, that said though, the rain tyres performed really well in quite difficult conditions on a low grip track in the wet and we saw an exciting race. We hope that the bad weather won’t play a part again this season, but no matter what, we are ready!”

Translated by Heather Watson
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