For the seventh round of the 2022 MotoGP™ World Championship, the Michelin Motorsport team will be driving north from its base at Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne to the iconic Circuit Bugatti Le Mans for the SHARK Grand Prix de France.
In addition, this weekend the French circuit will play host to the second round of the 2022 FIM Enel MotoE™ World Cup, where riders will battle for victory on identical Energica Ego Corsa electric motorcycles shod with Michelin’s specially developed Power Slick tyres, that are manufactured using increased levels of sustainable materials. For this year the rear tyres are constructed using a higher percentage of sustainable materials than last year – up from 40 to 46 per cent – but with no reduction in performance.
The tight and twisty 4.185-kilometre (2.6 miles) circuit, which features nine right-hand and five left-hand corners, and a short 674m (0.419 miles) straight means that the front tyres will be subjected to a lot of hard braking into the low-gear corners and then the rears will endure the subsequent forces exerted by the hard acceleration on the exits.
Michelin’s 2022 Le Mans MotoGP tyre allocation will comprise Michelin Power Slick tyres that have been chosen to give all teams and riders the optimum grip, confidence, and race-distance consistency on the Bugatti Circuit, with its medium-severity asphalt. As usual, the allocation will be Soft, Medium and Hard compounds for the front and rear, with the front tyres all being symmetric, and all of the rear options being asymmetric – with a harder right-hand-side to cope with the additional corners in that direction.
In the event of wet weather, which is not unusual in this part of France at this time of year, Michelin Power Rain tyres will be available in Soft and Medium compounds front and rear, with the two rear options being asymmetric and again these are harder on the right side like their slick counterparts.
Speaking ahead of the race weekend, Piero Taramasso, Michelin Two-Wheel Motorsport Manager, said: “We are all very much looking forward to our home race, and the different challenges it will offer us and the riders. In Le Mans the weather can be changeable at this time of year with low track temperatures, and there is the possibility that this could prove challenging to the teams as was the case recently in Portimao.”
The MotoGP riders will take to the track on Friday morning for the first of two Free Practice sessions. Saturday will see two more practice sessions followed by Qualifying sessions 1 and 2. On Sunday the lights will go out for the 27-lap race at 14:00.
