Jerez : Race - Bridgestone
Bridgestone made the perfect start to the 2006 MotoGP world championship this afternoon with Italian rider Loris Capirossi completing a superb start-to-finish victory in the Spanish GP.

Capirossi`s faultless display in the 27-lap season opener also chalked up another milestone for Bridgestone on an already historic weekend for the Japanese tyre manufacturer. Having completed its first clean sweep of the front row of a MotoGP grid in qualifying yesterday, Capirossi`s sixth premier class victory was the first for Bridgestone on European soil with previous victories coming in the Far East and South America. Capirossi could not have given Bridgestone a better opening to the 2006 campaign after he completed the pole position, race victory and fastest lap hat-trick.

In front of a passionate sell-out home crowd of 131,000, Capirossi made a typical flying start to lead into the first corner, where world champion Valentino Rossi crashed in an incident further down the field. It was a lead that the 32-year Marlboro Ducati rider would never relinquish, as he set off at a blistering pace on Bridgestone`s latest generation race tyres to lead by over two seconds after just four laps. Capirossi kept his composure despite coming under intense pressure from home favourite Dani Pedrosa shortly after the halfway stage of the race.

By lap 17, Capirossi`s lead was cut to just 0.2s, but with a major shock on the cards, Capirossi comfortably edged away from Pedrosa using the much-improved endurance of the new Bridgestone race tyres over the final six laps. Today`s race proved a disappointing affair for Capirossi`s Ducati team-mate Sete Gibernau. Boosted by qualifying on the front row of the grid, his Bridgestone debut ended when he retired after just three laps having held third place.

Next best Bridgestone rider was Kawasaki`s Shinya Nakano, who ended up seventh after a terrific fight with MotoGP rookie Casey Stoner. Another plus for Bridgestone on the opening day of the season was Suzuki`s John Hopkins setting the fourth best time in the race, just 0.3s outside of Capirossi`s outright quickest lap.


Bridgestone engineers now head to the second round of the championship in Qatar next month to battle with the unique conditions provided by the Losail International Circuit.

Loris Capirossi – Ducati Marlboro Team – 1st : "For the first race of the season it is amazing for us. This is the best start to a season we have made. We made a great job during the IRTA test here earlier this month and tried the tyres in a long run and we thought then we had a good opportunity to do well in this race. We made a great job yesterday to get the pole position with a fantastic lap time and today when I started my target was to take it easy at the beginning. But I found myself in the lead and tried to do some really good laps and opened up a bit of an advantage. I could see Dani coming behind me and I`m impressed with him because he was riding really well in his first MotoGP. I tried to take it a little bit easy and Dani got close to me, but for the last six laps I pushed again to try and take an advantage. I could see I was gaining and won the race. I have to say a big thanks to Bridgestone because they have done a fantastic job. We worked hard all winter and now this is our second season together the partnership is now starting to work really well. We go to Qatar full of optimism and confidence now that we can maintain a serious challenge for the world championship this year."

Hiroshi Yamada – Motorcycle Racing Manager – Bridgestone Corporation : "Today finished off a perfect weekend for us and I am very happy. It was a fantastic day and is very satisfying to know that we set pole position, won the race and also had the fastest lap. I don`t know what else we can do. I would like to thank all of the Bridgestone staff for the hard work and effort they have put in during the last winter. Today`s performance from Loris proves that we have taken the correct direction with development of the tyres from 2005. I am very happy for Loris because he was very strong today and rode a good race. I am very sorry for Sete though. He also had a good chance but we know that he will be back. What makes today even more special is the win is our first in Europe, which is another landmark we have achieved this weekend in Jerez. Now we can look forward to Qatar with extra optimism and confidence after such a great start to the season."

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