MotoGP
British GP: Michelin preview
MICHELIN MEN AIM TO WIN AGAIN AT DONINGTON French tyre brand currently has five riders in the championship top seven The MotoGP circus crosses the English Channel for the British Grand Prix where Michelin riders will be aiming to give the French ...
Published: Jun 18, 2008, 10:23 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
MICHELIN MEN AIM TO WIN AGAIN AT DONINGTON
French tyre brand currently has five riders in the championship top seven
The MotoGP circus crosses the English Channel for the British Grand Prix where Michelin riders will be aiming to give the French tyre brand its second consecutive victory and its fourth success of the year. As the 2008 MotoGP series nears half-distance Michelin has no less than five riders in the top seven of the points standings.
Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) is second overall, just five points off the points lead, after his totally dominant win at Catalunya on June 8. Dazzling rookie Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) is still third on points despite missing Catalunya due to injury. Then it's veteran Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin) and rookies Andrea Dovizioso (JiR Team Scot Honda RC212V-Michelin) and James Toseland (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin) in fifth, sixth and seventh. Toseland has impressed in the first races of MotoGP career, with four top-six finishes so far, and the Briton will be out for a best-ever result at Donington, where he has previously enjoyed World Superbike glory.
Donington is a real challenge for riders, motorcycle engineers and technicians with a very asymmetric layout that features few left-handers and two contrasting sections that demand different riding styles and a delicate compromise in machine character and tyre performance.
The British GP is the third race in four weekends and there's no rest after the event with riders and teams hotfooting it back across the Channel for the Dutch TT on Saturday June 28.
DONINGTON PARK DATA
4.023km/2.500 miles
Lap record: Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin), 1m 28.714s, 163.252km/h (2006)
Pole position 2007: Colin Edwards (Fiat Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin), 1m 28.531s
"Two of the last three Donington races have been run in the wet, so we hope for a dry race this time, especially since we have already had rain at a lot of this year's MotoGP events," says Jean-Philippe Weber, Michelin's chief of motorcycle racing. "Donington usually has an okay grip level in the dry but we will have to wait and see how it is this time. Track surfaces tend to change year by year. We saw that at Catalunya where the track was very slippery, possibly because there had been a truck race there a few weeks earlier.
"Donington is not especially demanding on tyres, it's probably quite similar to Le Mans from a tyre wear point of view. The big challenge is finding a compromise for the track's peculiar layout. For example, you need very good warm-up on the left-side of the tyres because the left doesn't make contact with the tarmac very often. If you consider Foggy's esses, the left of the tyres hasn't touched the ground for a long time, so you need to make sure you still have good temperature in the tyres for the first part of the chicane. But you can't simply use a very soft compound on the left because that side of the tyre does get a lot of stress through the high-speed double left-hander of Schwantz Curve.
"We had a very useful two-day test at Catalunya after the race where we confirmed some new compounds that we will use for some races in the near future. As always, we are working to find the best balance between tyre performance and consistency. In MotoGP riders now need to run quite hard tyres which allow them to be fast all the way to the finish, but at the same time they need fast warm-up and excellent grip. We have also made some good progress with new constructions recently. Andrea used a new rear construction during the tests at Catalunya, something we had worked out after Mugello, and it gave good results."
-credit: michelin
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article British GP: Bridgestone preview
Next article British GP: Ducati Mugello test notes 2008-06-17
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Andrea Dovizioso
Andrea Dovizioso: “Marc Marquez’s situation is much more serious than it seems”
MotoGP
MotoGP
Andrea Dovizioso: “Marc Marquez’s situation is much more serious than it seems”
Yamaha signs Andrea Dovizioso as MotoGP test rider
MotoGP
MotoGP
Italian GP
Yamaha signs Andrea Dovizioso as MotoGP test rider
Dovizioso to test Yamaha MotoGP bike in Misano this week
MotoGP
MotoGP
Dovizioso to test Yamaha MotoGP bike in Misano this week
More from
Honda HRC
With the Qatar MotoGP Grand Prix over, it is time to heal the wounds
MotoGP
MotoGP
Qatar GP
With the Qatar MotoGP Grand Prix over, it is time to heal the wounds
Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed
MotoGP
MotoGP
Qatar GP
Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed
Honda names Jake Dixon as Joan Mir's substitute for Qatar GP
MotoGP
MotoGP
Malaysian GP
Honda names Jake Dixon as Joan Mir's substitute for Qatar GP
Latest news
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 41 min
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 1 h
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
2 h
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
4 h
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe