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Insight: Laguna Seca's affects on tyres

As well as the soaring ambient temperatures, the configuration of the Laguna Seca track makes for a large challenge for sole tyre manufacturer Bridgestone. With an anti-clockwise circuit full of elevations to cater for, durability is the key factor.

Tohru Ubukata, manager for motorcycle race tyre development, explains the American circuit through Bridgestone's eyes:

The Corkscrew is one of, if not the, most challenging corner of the year

'The Corkscrew complex is famous and is a really demanding corner for the bike, rider and tyre package, but the right-handed Turns 3 and 4 are also critical for tyres. Most of the corners are left-handers, so it's important to make sure that we also generate good grip through the right-handers.

Laguna Seca is the shortest race track that we visit during the season, at just 3.610km (2.241mi) but this makes it no less challenging for the Bridgestone tyres. The 32 laps of competition on Sunday are a good challenge for our tyres as the usually hot track temperatures can have a large impact upon tyre performance and durability.

Even though the total race distance is nearly the shortest of the season, Laguna is a track that uses our tyres quite hard and demands a lot from them.'

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