Iannone’s incredible lap secures pole position for Ducati, a Bridgestone view

Mugello, 30 May 2015: On his penultimate lap in Qualifying Practice 2, Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone set a new Mugello Circuit Best Lap record of 1’46.489 to secure his first ever MotoGP™ pole position, and a first for Ducati at their home race since 2007.

Iannone’s lap smashed the existing outright lap record at Mugello by almost seven-tenths of a second and saw him narrowly clinch the top spot from Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Jorge Lorenzo, who set a personal best time of 1’46.584. Qualifying in third position was Iannone’s Ducati Team stablemate Andrea Dovizioso who managed to clock a 1’46.610 to give the Italian marque double reason to celebrate today. Both Iannone and Dovizioso set their best times using the combination of the soft compound rear slick and medium compound front slick, while Lorenzo used medium compound slicks front and rear on his way to second place in qualifying.

It just wasn’t the riders on the front row that set an incredible pace in qualifying today, the top eleven riders in QP2 set times quicker than the existing lap record time of 1’47.157 set by Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa in 2013.

All of today’s sessions experienced fine and sunny conditions, although ambient and track temperatures were cooler than yesterday. The peak track temperature recorded today was 41°C during qualifying, seven degrees less than yesterday’s highest reading. With similar weather and track conditions to yesterday, the riders used the Free Practice sessions to assess different tyre combinations, with the major focus being evaluating which front slick compound to use for the race. The medium compound front slick has emerged as the favourite option for most riders given the many high-speed sections at Mugello. However, the extra braking stability of the hard compound front slick means it will also be utilised in tomorrow’s race by some riders.

Track temperatures this weekend haven’t been as high as experienced at Mugello in recent years and as a result, the hard compound rear slick – although providing excellent consistency and drive grip – will probably not figure in tomorrow’s race unless a pronounced increase in track temperatures tomorrow. The soft compound rear slick will be used by some Open class riders, however the medium compound rear slick will be the most widely used option for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix.

Ambient temperatures are forecast to increase slightly tomorrow, when the next MotoGP session is the twenty-minute Warm Up session at 0940 local time (GMT +2). The twenty-three lap Italian Grand Prix starts at 1400.

“What a fantastic day we witnessed at Mugello today. In all of today’s sessions the pace was very quick and also very close between the riders – at times in FP3 the top ten riders were split by less than two-tenths of a second. Tyre performance over a single lap and during race simulations was quick and consistent, with almost every rider in QP2 setting times quicker than the old Mugello Circuit Best Lap record, and some riders were able to consistently lap under race record pace in their race simulations. Another good point for us is that the riders have been very positive about our tyre allocation this weekend, at a circuit which demands maximum confidence from the tyres. It now seems that the medium compound front and rear slicks are the favourite options amongst the riders, but the soft rear slick and hard front slick will also be used during tomorrow’s race. Unless track temperatures increase significantly tomorrow, I don’t expect the hard rear slick to be used by any riders for the race.”

 eom/A Bridgestone press release