Michelin: Le Mans a circuit that needs special attention

MotoGP will be making a much later than usual visit to Michelin's home Le Mans circuit, venue for this weekend's French Grand Prix.

The event is normally held in May but was postponed until October by the Covid pandemic, meaning an even greater risk of cold and/or wet weather.

Michelin said such weather has been taken into consideration when selecting this weekend's tyres, which will see the soft, medium and hard rears available in asymmetric compounds (harder right-hand side) while the three front options will use symmetric compounds.

In the case of wet weather, the soft and medium compound Michelin wets will be available. Again, the rear wets will have an asymmetric finish with a harder right side, with the fronts symmetric.

"Le Mans is a circuit that needs special attention as there are lots of slower corners and hard braking," said Michelin Motorsport Two-Wheel Manager Piero Taramasso.

"The front tyre has a lot of work to do, so we chose the compounds carefully to suit that, plus this season we will be going at a completely different time to usual, it could be very cold in the morning, but with the compounds we have selected for the weekend we have taken that into consideration."

Michelin rubber will also be used for this weekend's MotoE season finale, which will start with the top four riders - Matteo Ferrari, Dominique Aegerter, Jordi Torres and Mattia Casadei - all covered by just 15 points.

"MotoE will come to a close during the weekend, with two races and the winner decided," said Taramasso. "It has been a really positive season for us, we have had some great racing so far and the new tyres we introduced for this year have performed really well."