Bridgestone motorsport wrap for 11th March 2008

It was the first time a MotoGP race has been held under lights, and Australia's reigning world champion Casey Stoner handled the unknown conditions better than his rivals to ride his Bridgestone-shod Ducati to victory in the season-opening race in Qatar.

After starting in fourth-place, Stoner stayed out of trouble early before setting the quickest lap of the race, an impressive 1m 55.153s, which is a massive 1.4s improvement over his existing lap record from 2007.  

His performance is all the more impressive given that riders struggled for grip in the cooler night-time conditions.

"Although qualifying did not go too well, we knew we had quite a good race pace, but this win is a fantastic result and I don't think we really expected it. At the start, I lacked side traction and traction in general, but once the tyres warmed up, we could put in some good lap times," Stoner said.

The Aussie crossed five seconds clear of Spanish pole-sitter Jorge Lorenzo on a Yamaha and the Honda of Dani Pedrosa.

In his debut race using Bridgestone tyres, Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi scored a hard-fought fifth place, while Loris Capirossi took an equally determined eighth place in his first race for Suzuki.  

Hirohide Hamashima, Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Race Tyre Development, said the weekend provided some important data for the rest of the season.

"From a technical perspective, we have faced a tough challenge here at Qatar, so it is of course great to see Casey Stoner and the Ducati team take another win using our tyres."

... meanwhile in Formula One

Bridgestone Motorsport is out in force at Melbourne's Albert Park circuit for next weekend's opening race of the FIA Formula One World Championship.

As Official Tyre Supplier for the 2008 season, Bridgestone will be supplying the entire grid with Potenza tyres at a track where compound choice is difficult to make - due to the vastly different weather that can be experienced, and the changing grip levels on a track which is only used once a year.

Bridgestone's medium and soft Potenzas will be used, with compounds only slightly different to those provided last year.