Bridgestone has confirmed that it will not be developing special tyres for the new class of privateer Claiming Rule Teams (CRTs) that will debut in MotoGP this season.
“We considered the introduction of CRT machines when developing the 2012 specification tyres and so these tyres offer the same level of performance to all the bikes on the grid,” said Tohru Ubukata, general manager of Bridgestone's Motorsport Tyre Development Department.
“Our main technical objectives of improved warm-up performance and a wider operating temperature range not only enhance rider confidence, they also ensure that the performance potential of the 2012 specification tyres is more accessible to the CRT machines.
“The CRT results at the first tests were quite promising and indicate that the 2012 specification tyres are well suited to CRT bikes.”
Nine CRT riders, using modified Superbike engines in a prototype chassis, will race alongside the twelve manufacturer MotoGP machines from Honda, Yamaha and Ducati this season.
While two Aprilia CRTs took part in a private test session at Valencia in late January, two other CRTs joined the manufacturer teams at Sepang for the first official test of 2012.
The best CRT at the Sepang test was Forward Racing's Colin Edwards. The Suter-BMW rider's best lap was 5.1sec from Honda's Casey Stoner, but 2.5sec from Ducati's Karel Abraham.
Bridgestone won the MotoGP title in 2007 (Casey Stoner, Ducati) and 2008 (Valentino Rossi, Yamaha), and has been MotoGP's exclusive tyre supplier since 2009.
source: crash.net
