Michelin changes hard front option after Oliveira's issues

Michelin will change its hard front tyre option for this weekend's second Red Bull Ring round in Austria, following a race-ending issue for Miguel Oliveira in last Sunday's grand prx.

The KTM rider was one of seven to select the hard front, but was forced to retire halfway through the 27-lap restart after several large chunks of rubber detached from the centre of his tyre.

"I had a problem with the front tyre. [A] defect," Oliveira confirmed. "I was forced to retire due to strong vibrations and risk to crash."

Although some other riders spoke of an unexpected lack of grip from their tyres in the race, especially Petronas Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow, the Portuguese was the only rider to suffer the chunking issue.

Nonetheless, the allocation has now been changed for this weekend when a new symmetric hard front will replace the previous asymmetric option.

"We are analysing the tyre that Miguel Oliveira used," a Michelin spokesman told the media.

"This was the only tyre that exhibited this issue during the whole weekend, and many tyres of this specification were used - particularly in FP4. It was not a structural problem, and it only affected parts of the tread rubber.

"This is a Michelin decision, which has been taken purely as a precaution for safety reasons, and it has the full backing of Dorna."

Potential defects aside, Oliveira's team-mate Brad Binder in particular will be hoping that the new tyre is harder than the previous version.

"It was clear from the first exit in FP1 that I was missing a lot of support from the front tyre. It was just too weak [soft]. But there’s nothing we can do about it. The hardest option is still soft. So, let’s see," said the South African, who nonetheless charged from 16th to fourth in the race.

"I feel like I can’t use any of the advantage of the bike because I use the front end a whole lot more than the other guys do. I brake harder and I normally brake later and I hold more pressure to the apex.

"You can put in a brand-new rear tyre, but if the front is your limiting factor, how do you go and cut a second? So, that was my biggest issue in qualifying. I knew in the race I could keep a decent rhythm, but the thing was the rhythm, I just had to sit on the limit and make sure not to go over it because it was so easy to tuck the front."