MotoGP rookie Makato Tamada rode an impressive race at Mugello last Sunday on his Bridgestone-shod Pramac Honda RC211V, coming from 18th on the first lap to finish 4th. In the process he set the third-fastest lap time of the race, only .156 seconds slower than race winner Valentino Rossi’s fastest time.
Besides Kenny Roberts’ Proton team, Tamada is the only premier-class rider to compete on Bridgestone tires, running a customer-spec RC211V similar to those of Max Biaggi and Tohru Ukawa. With only one full season of MotoGP competition under it’s belt, Bridgestone has done a remarkable job of catching up to the dominant Michelins. At Mugello, Tamada set his fastest time of 1’52.779 on lap four, and ran consistently in the low- to mid-53 second range until the end of the race. To develop a tire which “comes on” quickly but lasts the entire race is the ultimate goal of any racing tire manufacturer, and it seems Bridgestone has achieved this goal with its MotoGP tires. Indeed, Tamada said in a press release from Pramac Honda: “I knew what the tires could do… the bike’s great, and so is the set-up: to tell you the truth, there isn’t much left to improve.”
The fourth-place result is even more impressive considering this is Tamada’s first season in MotoGP and it was his first time riding at the Mugello circuit. Tamada started out racing 250s before moving on to race in the All-Japan Superbike series. In 2001 he raced the World Superbike round at Sugo as a wild card entry and won both races, and in 2002 he won another WSB race at Sugo as well as finishing second in the Suzuka 8 Hours.
HRC is obviously confident in Tamada’s skills, as it has been reported that he was the first non-factory Honda rider to receive the new factory-style fairings for his customer RC211V. For any skeptics who may have taken this as an example of HRC favoritism towards a Japanese-born rider, Tamada certainly proved them wrong with his performance at Mugello. If he continues to improve in leaps like this, don’t be surprised to see Bridgestone on the podium in MotoGP for the first time since they returned to the class last season.
