Bridgestone’s super soft tyre carried Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton to his third pole position of the season in the only night-time qualifying session of the year.

Hamilton set a time of 1min 47.891secs in a session which was red flagged after championship contender Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP Formula 1 Team) hit the wall late in the session. Hamilton had earlier used the super soft tyre to go fastest in the Saturday practice session with a 1min 47.632secs lap. The day’s fastest lap, a 1min 46.197secs, was set by AT&T Williams driver Nico Rosberg in Q2 using the super soft.

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

What was significant about today’s running?
“We have to investigate the data in depth however it seems like circuit conditions might have continued to change quite quickly today. This means that some teams could have struggled to adjust their cars for the increased grip from the improved track surface. This means that car balance could alter, so it has been a difficult day once more here in Singapore due to the good challenge of this circuit.”

What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow’s race?
“It is still very difficult to say exactly, and we did see a lot of track improvement through the race last year here. We continue to see more degradation from the super soft tyre, in particular at the rear, although the degradation does not initially look to be as much as yesterday. However, there are no easy answers here. I suspect that the teams will be working very hard analysing their data and deciding their strategies for tomorrow.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation