Jorge Lorenzo: Front tyre switch is right choice

Jorge Lorenzo believes it is the right decision to introduce a new standard front tyre from next weekend’s British Grand Prix onwards.

From the Silverstone round, the entire field will have to use a new softer construction front Bridgestone tyre, which was designed for better warm-up performance and more feel.

The majority in MotoGP have liked the new softer option apart from Repsol Honda duo Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa.

They say the new front is too unstable for straight line braking and both have encountered a front-end chatter issue, which has only made the RC213V harder to ride while they struggle to iron out a rear chatter problem.

Pedrosa has been the harshest critic of the front tyre and he slammed the move during a one-day test at Catalunya on Monday as ‘unfair and unsafe.”

Aussie Stoner, who will retire from MotoGP at the end of the season, told MCN at the Catalunya test: “We have to run a lot more front pressure to get any stability out of the tyre and then you go into the corner and it is very dull, it doesn’t do anything, there is no support.

“Then if you put weight on the tyre the front wants to tuck.”
Spaniard Lorenzo, who leads Stoner in the 2012 title hunt by 20-points heading to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, though believes the change is the right one.

The 2010 world champion told MCN: “It is bad luck for Honda in the sense that they have an issue to use this tyre because for the rest of us it seems to be working and it is the safer tyre on braking to avoid the crashes. They need to find the best set-up for this tyre because this is the one they will use until the last race.

“I think it is the right decision to choose a tyre that the majority of the riders prefer. Sometimes the tyre in the past hasn’t suited Yamaha or Ducati and this time it has happened to Honda.”