WSB: Pirelli revert to old tyre after Misano madness

Pirelli are feeling the heat after a disastrous weekend in Misano saw a number of riders struggle with tyre issues across the weekend.

PATA Yamaha’s Michael van der Mark suffered an obvious tyre failure while leading Saturday’s opening race as his rear tyre suddenly deflated and subsequently came off the rim causing him to dramatically crash out of the race.

The incident was almost a carbon copy of that suffered by Jonathan Rea at Donington Park last month but Pirelli have said the damage sustained to Rea and van der Mark’s tyres was very different. The duo were also running different specification tyres.

Van der Mark would also suffer deflation issues in the second race, as did Althea BMW’s Jordi Torres who would retire from the podium battle with his tyre issues.

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Pirelli have been quick to respond to the issues, immediately sending the tyres in question for analysis while also making the decision to revert to an older specification tyre.

“It is obviously of primary interest to us to understand what caused this damage to the tyres,” said Pirelli race boss Giorgio Barbier.

“Our laboratories in Milan are already at work. Given the complexity of this analysis, a few days will be required to obtain results. In the meantime, until we have clarified and resolved the nature of the problem, we assure that for the next FIM World Superbike Championship round scheduled for to be held in Laguna Seca, we will use solutions that have already been used in the past with complete success.” 

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