Formula One 'set for new tyre supplier'

There will be a new official tyre supplier for the 2011 Formula One season.

Bridgestone Motorsport - the official tyre supplier for the iconic motorsport championship - has announced that it will not renew its contract following the end of the 2010 event.

Hiroshi Yasukawa, director of Bridgestone Motorsport, claimed that the decision came following "considerable and lengthy evaluations".

Mr Yasukawa adds that the firm's relationship with Formula One "stretches beyond being a tyre supplier" and it has helped the Japanese company to significantly increase its brand awareness and develop new technologies.

He goes on to claim Bridgestone is "wholly committed to the provision of safe tyres of the highest quality" for next year's Formula One season and that its tyre servicing operation will remain "at the highest level".

Meanwhile, the firm claimed that a combination of its hard and soft tyre helped Fiat Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo on his way to a fourth place finish at the 2009 Malaysian MotoGP event earlier this year.