MICHELIN'S MotoGP MEN MAKE FAST START TO 2008
Pedrosa and Lorenzo placed first and second after first four races

Michelin's MotoGP riders have made a superb start to the 2008 season. After the
first four rounds of this year's World Championship, Michelin men Dani Pedrosa
(Repsol Honda RC212V-Michelin) and Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha Team YZR-M1-
Michelin) are first and second in the points chase with a win apiece. In total
Michelin riders have scored four pole positions, won two race victories and filled
seven of 12 podium places at the first four events of the 18-round series.

Spaniard Pedrosa took the series lead with a superb home GP victory at Jerez,
while dazzling rookie Lorenzo went equal on points when he took his debut
MotoGP win at Estoril, Portugal. Lorenzo has been the find of 2008 ? the double
250 World Champion made history by scoring pole position at each of his first
three MotoGP events and may have continued that form if he hadn't crashed
during Chinese GP practice, breaking a bone in his left ankle and wrenching his
right ankle. Lorenzo proved his mettle by riding through the pain barrier to take
fourth at Shanghai while Pedrosa retook the series lead with a fine ride to second
place.

Other star Michelin performers at the first four races have been long-time
Michelin man Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin) who took pole in
China, rookie James Toseland (Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1-Michelin) who qualified on
the front row for his very first MotoGP race in Qatar and another rookie Andrea
Dovizioso (JiR Team Scot Honda RC212V-Michelin) who has also showed serious
speed and great promise for the future.

Michelin's big step forward into the 2008 season has been the talk of the paddock.
During the off-season Michelin's MotoGP chemists and engineers focused on three
main performance factors: edge grip, warm-up and operating range.

Edge grip is vital with the new breed of 800cc MotoGP bikes which use so much
corner speed. Michelin has worked hard to allow riders to brake deep into corners
and then accelerate hard from the corner apex. Texan Tornado Edwards speaks for
many Michelin riders when he says: "The new tires are just awesome, you can
brake to the apex, full lean and then just hammer it on."

Michelin's performance in all kinds of conditions ? from the moist coolness of the
first-ever night GP in Qatar to the fast-changing weather in China proves that the
company's latest tires also have good warm-up and a much-improved operating
range.

"In Qatar our riders were able to lead from the very start, despite the cool low
track temperature, proving that warm-up performance is very good," says Jean-
Philippe Weber, Michelin's director of motorcycle racing. "And in China our riders
were able to race with the same tires that they had used in practice, even though
track temperature was 25 degrees [77º F] on race day, 23 degrees [73º F] less than
it had been the day before. This proves that our tires now have an excellent
operating range. And sticking with the same tires gives riders a real advantage
because they can keep the same machine settings and because they know how the
tire is going to perform over race distance.

"We are very happy with the performance of our riders so far this year. We have
seen Dani and Jorge win races early in the championship but we can see that all
seven of our riders are showing excellent potential. The rookies like Jorge, James
and Andrea are also very exciting and give us great hope for the future."