Bridgestone’s super soft tyre proved to be the fastest rubber for the first running at night of the 2009 Formula One season as Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) topped the timesheets at the Marina Bay street course in Singapore.

Vettel set a 1min 48.650secs late in the second 90 minute session, as lap times dropped rapidly with the track surface improvement during the course of the hot and humid evening.

Bridgestone’s soft tyre was the fastest in the first practice session where drivers tackled the slippery and dusty street course. Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP Formula 1 Team) was quickest with a 1min 50.179secs.

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

What was significant about today’s running?
“Just like last year we saw the track start very slippery. This was due a dusty surface and no rubber laid down. We saw a few drivers get caught out by these conditions; however the surface improved a lot during the evening. The lap times today were around three seconds slower than last year, and I think the reason for this is mainly due to the circuit revisions which have re-profiled turn 1 and turn 10, making them tighter and slower.”

How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?
“Lap times decreased considerably during the evening and we think that this will continue tomorrow. The constantly evolving surface makes it difficult for teams to find the perfect set-up which is a good challenge for them and could provide some interesting results tomorrow. The super soft is quicker than the soft however we do not have sufficient data yet to know the exact difference. Both compounds showed good appearance and we didn’t see any big issues with graining. We could see rear degradation on both, but this is likely to be due to the slippery conditions and this will improve as the track evolves.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation