Press Release – Gran Premio Animoca Brands de Aragón

2022-09-19 09:22
Enea Bastianini emerged victorious on his MICHELIN Power Slick tyres under the Spanish sun in a dramatic 15th round of the 2022 MotoGP™ world championship, at the Gran Premio Animoca Brands de Aragón. Following him home in second and third places respectively were Francesco Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing).

With warm and dry conditions all weekend, the riders had plenty of time to work on settings and test all of the MICHELIN Power Slick tyres in the allocation, but due to the track conditions all riders chose the Hard front and Medium rear options for the race. This choice worked well, with a new race duration record of 41’35.462 being set.

As is usually the case here in Motorland Aragón, the lap times during the early sessions of the weekend were affected by dust and dirt on the circuit, which is deposited by the wind from the surrounding arid landscape, along with green asphalt conditions that improved as time went by.

Free Practice 1 gave the riders their first taste of the much-reduced grip levels compared to Misano as they began to clear the dust and lay down some rubber, but the reduced grip levels provided by the track surface meant that the best lap time was 1’48.686. In FP2 the conditions started to improve, along with the lap times, and all of the riders putting numerous laps on the Hard front and Medium rear MICHELIN Power Slicks before switching to Soft rears for time attack towards the end of the session. Prima Pramac Racing’s Jorge Martin finished ahead of the pack with a lap time of 1’47.402.

On Saturday the winds were stronger than on Friday, and this gave the riders an extra challenge. In FP3 most riders started with Medium MICHELIN Power Slicks front and rear, before again switching to the Soft compound rears for time attack. With places in Q2 at stake, lap times improved again – dropping into the 1’46s – and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) was fastest with a best time of 1’46.992. During the same session, Enea Bastianini broke the circuit top speed record, hitting 354.1km/h (220.3mph) on board his Ducati GP22.

In Q2, the usual exciting battle ensued as the riders pushed harder and harder to grab the best places on the grid. Francesco Bagnaia took pole position with a new all-time circuit lap record time of 1’46.069, heading a Ducati front row lock-out.

Commenting after the race weekend, Piero Taramasso, Michelin Two Wheel Motorsport Manager, said: “Here in Aragon, the grip levels from the asphalt which was laid in 2009 is probably the lowest on the calendar, and the lap times during the weekend usually follow a pattern of improving by around one second with each subsequent session, and this year was no different. One important element for the tyre performance this weekend was that the 2022 rear tyre allocation evolved since last year, based on previous data and rider feedback, with a new Soft option. This new Soft tyre led to three riders logging lap times under the previous all-time lap record during Q2.

“The pace during the weekend was very fast, despite the difficult track conditions, and I’m particularly happy to see the improvement in lap times since last year, culminating in the new all-time circuit and race lap records, plus a new race duration record and a fastest top speed record. In addition, the consistency of the tyres was highlighted by the leaders posting low 1’48 lap times right to the end of the race.”

Source: Michelin Motorsport

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