Bridgestone’s hard tyre proved to be the fastest rubber on the harsh surface of the Silverstone circuit for the first day of the British Grand Prix. In cloudy and windy conditions, Sebastian Vettel set the day’s fastest lap time, a 1min 19.400secs, in his Red Bull Racing car during the morning practice session.

Vettel was also the fastest driver in the afternoon practice session, also using the hard Bridgestone to set a time of 1min 19.456secs. Mark Webber (Red Bull Racing) was second fastest in both sessions today.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What was significant about today’s running?
“Today was a little strange. It was very windy, which affects the cars differently depending on the wind direction and can make it difficult to get the best set-up to make the best use of our tyres. In the morning we saw some graining on the hard front Bridgestones, which were the only tyres used in this session. In the afternoon, the track temperature was warmer and both compounds were used. We did not see the expected amount of graining with the soft tyre, meaning that it worked well, and also there was no graining on the hard. There were not the usual improvements in lap time through this session, and we believe that the wind and fuel levels may have made a difference here.”

How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?
“The British weather will play a big part in answering this question. Not only did we have relatively high winds at the circuit today, it was also colder than we see at most grands prix. At today’s temperatures, the soft Bridgestone could well be the better qualifying and race tyre for most people, however if the temperatures are warmer the hard Bridgestone could look like a more attractive race tyre.” 

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

Read original blog post