After a good performance from both Honda Gresini riders in the race at Estoril, which featured memorable battles of Marco Melandri with Nicky Hayden and John Hopkins and a good fight-back from Toni Elias, the pair are looking forward with renewed motivation to the Grand Prix of Japan, the 15th round of the MotoGP World Championship. Melandri and Elias are ready for the appointment at the Twin Ring Motegi, a special occasion for the Honda riders, motivated to get a good result on the track that belongs to the Japanese Factory. MARCO MELANDRI: “Now there are four rounds left to dispute on very demanding tracks. In particular Motegi requires lots of acceleration. I’m very motivated. I’d like to score a good result to thank Fausto (Gresini) and the team for their great job. The feeling with the bike is improved and also Bridgestone tyres should work very well: Bridgestone tyres dominated here in the last 3 years, so I’m confident. We will work hard to get the best out of the bike and to use all its potential. Not only, in Portugal I was still suffering a bit from the consequences of the crash at Misano, in Japan I should be 100 per cent fit .I have started to train again and I have to confess that it was not easy at the beginning after more than 2 months (from the incident in Laguna Seca) of forced stop.” TONI ELIAS: “Motegi is a track that I like and where I have got good results with two wins in 250cc class. I hope that we can finally get some good results and turn positively this season complicated by a bad crash at Assen and the injyry at the left leg. The team is doing a great job and my feeling with the bike is improving. At Motegi is very important to find a good set up of the bike. Because of the strong braking, it’s important to have a good balance on the bike. The secret in fact is to find compromise between braking and acceleration. I’m confident and motivated .” FOCUS: A SPECIAL GP FOR BRIDGESTONE. The Japanese Gran Prix is a special event for the Honda Gresini team because it takes place on the track that belongs to Honda and because it is an important appoint for Bridgestone. With its technical centre in Kodaira on the outskirts of Tokyo and its headquarters in the city centre itself, in fact the Japanese Grand Prix in Motegi is a home race for Honda Gresini’s tyre supplier Bridgestone. Motegi has seen some of Bridgestone’s most memorable achievements with three consecutive victories since 2004, one for Honda rider Makoto Tamada and two for Loris Capirossi. Now in just its sixth season in MotoGP, Bridgestone has seen 17 victories on its tyres and 20 pole positions. Marco Melandri and Toni Elias’s podiums this season in Istanbul, Le Mans, Laguna Seca have helped take the total number of podium results on Bridgestone tyres to 48 in this period. Around 100 people work on the company’s MotoGP project at the technical centre in Kodaira where all of Bridgestone’s MotoGP and Formula 1 tyres are designed and manufactured throughout the gruelling racing season. A team of 17 staff are responsible for Bridgestone on-site MotoGP activities with 7 people dedicated to the technical side, 7 on logistics and tyre fitting, 2 representatives from head office and 1 press officer. Around 20,000 MotoGP tyres are constructed each year to cover the 18 races on the calendar, as well as post-race and winter testing programmes. THE NUMBERS Number of tyres at each GP event approx. 1,000 Number of tyres scanned each weekend 310 Number of tyres scanned during season 5,580 Number of tyres fitted and balanced on set-up day approx. 140 Number of staff working on Bridgestone MotoGP approx. 100 Number of fitting staff on event 6 Total number of staff on event around 17 Operating temperature of a MotoGP tyre around 100C Number of tyres produced per year approx. 20,000 Number of tyres a fitter can fit in one hour approx. 12 THE TRACK Built:1997 Last modified:1999 Lenght:4.801 m Width: 15 m Pole position:left Right Curves: 8 Left Curves:6 Straight: 762 m RECORD: Record:2006 Rossi (Yamaha) 1’47″288 Pole position: 2006 Capirossi (Ducati) 1’45″724 2006 Race :1° Capirossi (Ducati) 2° Rossi (yamaha) 3° Melandri (Honda) Motogp race: 24 laps, 115,224 km