Bridgestone have altered the rear slick allocation for this weekend’s Motegi MotoGP round, bringing in a slightly softer medium compound and an extra-soft for the Open class riders - which is probably the last thing Scott Redding wanted to hear.

Motegi comprises eight right-hand and six left-hand corners, so two of the rear slicks for the Japanese Grand Prix are asymmetric with slightly harder rubber on the right shoulder. The rear tyre options for the Factory Honda and Yamaha riders are the asymmetric soft and symmetric medium rear slicks, while the Aprilia, Ducati, Suzuki and Open class riders get access to the asymmetric extra-soft and soft compound slicks.

“Ambient temperatures for the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi are usually cool which requires us to develop tyres which warm up quickly for this race, but the stop-and-go layout of the circuit also is an important consideration in our tyre development. This circuit features hard braking and acceleration zones, so the tyres must provide good stability while braking, good drive grip to help acceleration out of the corners and high levels of durability,” said Bridgestone’s Shinji Aoki.

“For this year’s Japanese Grand Prix we have changed our rear tyre allocation slightly, with the hardest rear option this weekend – the symmetric medium compound rear slick – being softer than last year’s medium rear slick for better cornering performance. The extra-soft rear slick will also be offered to open-class riders at Motegi; the first time this tyre has been in our allocation since the French Grand Prix at Le Mans.”