Bridgestone’s soft tyre took Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Heikki Kovalainen to the fastest time of the first ever day of Formula One cars running at the spectacular Yas Marina Circuit for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Kovalainen set a time of 1m 41.307secs in the later of the two afternoon practice sessions. His teammate Lewis Hamilton was fastest in the first practice session, using the medium compound Bridgestone Potenza.

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

What was significant about today’s running?
“Today was all about learning this fantastic new circuit so for the teams and the drivers it was a big challenge. As with any new circuit the grip level increased a lot through the day and we saw a big improvement in lap times. Our desert location means there was sand and dust on the track at the beginning of the day too. In the later session the track temperature dropped quite quickly after sunset, but even the coolest temperature seen was still quite warm.”

How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?
“We expect the track to further improve tomorrow. We are currently analysing today’s data as it is still very early to say how exactly the medium and soft will work in the race. We saw graining today, especially on the rear. There was more graining on the soft compound, as you would expect. Whilst there was good grip improvement on the racing line, off-line the track is still quite dirty so drivers need to be vigilant here. A good qualifying and race set-up will depend on how well the teams predict the grip improvement from the track.”

Bridgestone heads to Yas Marina for the first ever Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on October 30 – November 1, where the medium and soft compound Potenzas will be exploring this exciting new 5.5 km circuit.

This is the final race of a thrilling season which began in Melbourne in March. The combination of medium and soft has been seen previously this year in Belgium and Italy.

Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director of Bridgestone Motorsport, said:
“It is wonderful for us to be ending the season at a fantastic new venue and all credit to everyone involved with the Yas Marina circuit for creating a superb new facility to be seen by millions of television viewers around the world. The Middle East is a strategically important market for us and we will be welcoming a large number of important customers and guests to this race.”

Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, said:

What are the challenges of Yas Marina?
“This will be the first ever race meeting at this circuit so it is very much a step into the unknown. Of course, we work very closely with the circuit and teams with simulations and evaluations of the layout, and we have been working with a sample of the track surface. We will also have some data from the GP2 Asia Series test which takes place the week before the Grand Prix. In terms of expected lateral forces we can say that the circuit is similar to Valencia. The track surface is similar to Barcelona or Fuji. Our ambient temperature predictions place Abu Dhabi as being similar to Bahrain. The track is new so very dark in colour, meaning it could get quite hot. We expect to see a lot of surface evolution.”

What are the primary tyre performance considerations?
“The circuit layout is a typical stop and go street course so there will be traction demands. As with any new surface we can expect the possibility of graining early in the weekend. We have brought the medium and soft compound Bridgestone Potenza tyres as they sit in the middle of our tyre range. It is difficult to know exactly what the temperatures will be, especially the track surface temperature with such a dark new surface.”

Stats & Facts
Number & Spec of tyres brought to Abu Dhabi 1800 (Medium & soft dry. Intermediate/wets)

Bridgestone’s intermediate tyre took Rubens Barrichello (Brawn GP Formula 1 Team) to his first pole position since Brazil 2004 to delight his home crowds on a very wet day at Interlagos.

Qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix was interrupted by red flag periods and delayed due to the wet conditions. Bridgestone’s wet tyre was the only one used in Q1, but the wet and the intermediate were used in Q2 and only the intermediate in Q3 as there was less standing water.

The wet was also the only tyre used in the morning practice, which had limited running due to heavy rain, and was ended early by red flags. Nico Rosberg (AT&T Williams) was fastest in this session.

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

What was significant about today’s running?
“I think it is fair to say that the rain was the main factor today and this was the longest qualifying session I can remember. A wet track is one of the biggest challenges in motor racing, because the grip level from the circuit is always changing. This makes choosing the correct tyre at the correct moment crucial, especially with the current qualifying format. At times the circuit was too wet for running, especially with some cars not running full wet set-ups. Overall we are happy with tyre performance today and it is very interesting for the championship battle to see Rubens Barrichello on pole so well done to him and Brawn GP. Mark Webber and Adrian Sutil also put in strong performances in the difficult conditions.”

What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow’s race?
“If it’s dry then we think the medium compound will be the preferred race tyre, as the super soft suffers from worse degradation. However, if temperatures are very cold and there is the threat of rain the super soft with its lower temperature working range and extra grip could show benefits. If it is wet like today tyre choices become very difficult and we saw a very good illustration of this last time we visited Interlagos.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

Bridgestone’s super soft tyre proved to be the fastest rubber at the undulating anti-clockwise Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo for the first day of the Brazilian Grand Prix as Fernando Alonso set a time of 1min 12.314secs in the afternoon practice session.

Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber set the fastest time in the morning practice session, using the super soft to achieve a 1min 12.463secs. Weather conditions were cool and cloudy all day with intermittent showers. In the afternoon session all drivers were separated by less than a second.

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

What was significant about today’s running?
“The first day at Interlagos is always a challenge and today was no different. The track surface was dirty and wet from drizzle and the weather was cooler than we expected. The temperature meant that the medium compound took a little longer to warm-up. Even so, both compounds worked well. The super soft has more grip however we saw graining on the front and rear tyres. Some drivers reported a moving sensation from the rear with the super soft, and this is a characteristic of the softer compound rubber.”

How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?
“We have to look to the skies for the answer to that question. As we saw last year, rain can be a very big factor here and many forecasts predict more rain over the weekend. For qualifying with the temperature similar to today we can expect the super soft to be the favoured tyre. For the race the medium compound should be the favoured tyre, although some competitors might find good results with the super soft.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

Bridgestone’s soft tyre carried Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) to his fourth pole position of the season for tomorrow’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

Vettel set a time of 1min 32.160secs in a qualifying session which was red flagged three times. Panasonic Toyota Racing Driver Jarno Trulli set the fastest time in the morning practice session, also using the soft Bridgestone Potenza.

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

What was significant about today’s running?
“Today was a big challenge for all drivers. The weather was dry, meaning that yesterday’s information from a wet track was not much use. This meant that teams only had the one hour of FP3 to accumulate the same data they would usually gain over four hours of practice. The track improved, as we would expect with the first dry running of the weekend, but this made set-up a challenge and we saw an interesting order at the end of FP3. The difficulty continued in qualifying, with two red flag periods in Q2 and one in Q3. It seemed that the older surface of the west track gave less grip for braking which may have caught out some drivers. Sebastian Vettel did well to get pole today and we hope that Timo Glock was not badly hurt in his accident.”

What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow’s race?
“Obviously we do not have as much data as we would have if Friday had been dry, but this is one of the challenges of motor racing. The soft tyre is definitely the quicker tyre, and it does not appear to have too bad degradation levels, meaning that it could be the preferred race tyre. The hard tyre takes longer to warm up than the soft, but we do not have sufficient data to know exactly the lap time difference between the two tyres. That said, I’m sure we will see an exciting race here at Suzuka.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation

Bridgestone’s intermediate tyre was the fastest rubber on Formula One’s return to the challenging and technical Suzuka Circuit as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Heikki Kovalainen set the fastest lap on the first day of the Japanese Grand Prix.

The morning practice, when Kovalainen set his time, took place on a wet but drying circuit. In the afternoon, continuous rain meant that only the final 30 minutes saw timed laps and only Bridgestone’s wet tyre was used. Adrian Sutil (Force India F1 Team) was the fastest driver. Not all drivers completed timed laps.

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

What was significant about today’s running?
“Today we have learnt that our latest specification intermediate tyre works very well here. This tyre stood up well for around 20 laps when used on a drying track. The rain through most of the second session meant no running took place for the first hour. This makes the weekend very interesting as the teams have no data from the dry tyres today.”

How do you expect the allocation to work over the weekend?
“Any data learnt from this morning using the wet and intermediate tyres will be lost in translation for using the dry tyres if the weather is better tomorrow. If it is wet then we will have a very interesting day as the grid could be determined by a wet qualifying session. If it is dry it will also be very
interesting as the teams will have to learn the hard and soft tyre performance with only limited track time. This gives the teams a big challenge, not just for qualifying but also for Sunday’s race.”

Image (c) Bridgestone Corporation