2006 MotoGP World Championship, round 17 Valencia Grand Prix, Valencia October 27/28/29 MICHELIN DUO SET FOR FINAL SHOWDOWN Michelin men Valentino Rossi (Camel Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) and Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin) go into the season-ending Valencia GP fighting for the last MotoGP World Championship of the 990cc era. This is the first time in 14 years that the premier-class title has gone down to the wire. The pair are separated by just eight points, Rossi ahead for the first time all season following the recent Portuguese GP, during which Hayden was the innocent victim of a mid-race collision. Last year at Valencia Hayden beat Rossi, but if the American is to wrest the MotoGP crown from the Italian, so far undefeated in the MotoGP series, he will need other riders in the mix on Sunday. Only one thing is certain – that the scene is set for a classic confrontation. Tire choice will, of course, be crucial to the outcome of Sunday’s race and therefore the World Championship. For example, Rossi and Hayden use different Michelin front tires, which offer contrasting advantages that will add an extra dimension of interest to their duel. Michelin has dominated all five years of the 990cc MotoGP era, taking all five world titles and winning 74 of the 81 races so far. Michelin has also won all seven premier-class races since the track hosted its first GP in 1999. MICHELIN’S RESPONSE TO THE CHALLENGE OF VALENCIA “It is obviously going to be an interesting and exciting weekend for everyone!” says Nicolas Goubert, Michelin’s director of motorcycle racing. “Nicky has been strong at Valencia since the beginning. He scored his first front row start there in 2003 and he finished just a fraction of a second behind Marco (Melandri, Fortuna Honda RC211V-Michelin) last year. Coming from the US he’s used to tracks with a lot of slow corners and he is also used to turning left from his dirt track days. On the other hand, Valentino says he’s not a great fan of the track, though everyone knows he will still be very strong. He got third at Valencia last year, even though he started from the fifth row of the grid. “The championship situation doesn’t change anything for us, we will do our job to the best of our ability as we always do. As usual we will make sure each rider gets the best tires, although that doesn’t mean they will all use the same tires because different riders choose different tires according to their riding styles and the requirements of their machines. “Nicky uses our wider profile front while Valentino has always preferred our narrow profile front. I think the performance of these tires will be similar at Valencia even though they should offer different advantages in different parts of the track. The narrow profile is slightly lighter through direction changes, while the wider profile gives a bit more grip into corners, especially downhill turns like the final left-hander, which could be useful if the race for the title goes down to the last corner or the last lap! “Valencia has always been quite a tough track. The layout is very asymmetric, the ground temperature can be very cool and there are some long corners, especially the last fast left which tightens into a very slow turn. This kind of corner prevents us with a very different challenge to the last fast left at Phillip Island, which opens up rather than tightens up. They thus require different tire characteristics. At Phillip Island the priority is traction for hard acceleration, at Valencia riders need maximum edge grip to get them through the tight final turn as fast as possible. Our 2006 rear, which delivers a bigger footprint for extra edge grip, should improve performance at Valencia, especially through that last corner. “But the biggest challenge at Valencia is finding the best combination of compounds for the left and right sides of the rear tire. You need good warm-up on the right, because there are only five right-handers and because the track temperature could be as low as 15 degrees if the weather is cool. On the left you need a much stronger compound to cope with the heat generated through the nine left-handers, especially that long, fast left at the end of the lap.” MICHELIN IN SPAIN Spain plays a vital role in Michelin’s motorcycling successes. Around 9000 people work for Michelin in the country, and the company’s massive Lasarte factory produces the bulk of Michelin’s global motorcycle tire output, around 1.5 million tires per annum, though MotoGP tires are still made at the company’s Clermont-Ferrand base in France. VALENCIA DATA Lap record: Marco Melandri (Telefonica Movistar Honda), 1:33.043, 154.961kp/h, 96.288mph, Pole position 2005: Sete Gibernau (Telefonica Movistar Honda), 1:31.874 Recent winners at Valencia 2005 Marco Melandri (Telefonica Movistar Honda), 46:58.152 2004 Valentino Rossi (Gauloises Yamaha YZR-M1-Michelin), 47:16.145 2003 Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda RC211V-Michelin), 47:13.078 2002 Alex Barros (West Honda Pons RC211V-Michelin), 47:22.404 2001 Sete Gibernau (Telefonica Movistar Suzuki RGV500-Michelin), 54:39.391 (damp race) 2000 Garry McCoy (Red Bull Yamaha WCM YZR500-Michelin), 48:27.799 1999 Regis Laconi (Red Bull Yamaha WCM YZR500-Michelin), 53:23.825 (damp race) MICHELIN MotoGP RIDERS 2006 Nicky Hayden, Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V-Michelin) Toni Elias, Marco Melandri (Fortuna Honda RC211V-Michelin) Casey Stoner (Honda LCR RC211V-Michelin) Makoto Tamada (Konica Minolta Honda RC211V-Michelin) Kenny Roberts Jr (Team Roberts KR211V-Michelin) Colin Edwards, Valentino Rossi (Camel Yamaha Team YZR-M1-Michelin) Garry McCoy (Ilmor SRT X3-Michelin)