Bridgestone’s super soft tyre allowed Panasonic Toyota Racing driver Jarno Trulli to qualify on pole and head up the first ever all-Toyota front row for tomorrow’s Bahrain Grand Prix.

Trulli set a time of 1min 33.431secs, almost three tenths ahead of team-mate Timo Glock. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing) went third fastest. Track conditions were improved from Friday, with more rubber laid and the temperatures were even hotter. Glock used the super soft tyre to go fastest in the morning practice session with a time of 1min 32.605secs.

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

What was significant about today’s running? 
“Today was very good for Toyota as both of their cars qualified on the front row, so congratulations to them and Jarno Trulli for his fourth pole position. We saw further progress from Friday’s running with the circuit grip level improved, particularly in the practice session, due to the track being cleared of sand, and more rubber being laid. Qualifying was very exciting through every session, with even the faster cars using the super soft tyre to get through the first qualifying session.”

How are the two compounds working here in Bahrain? 
“We are seeing an interesting weekend in terms of tyre performance. The super soft tyre has worked very well so far this weekend. It delivers a good fast lap time on average 0.7 seconds faster than the medium tyre. In terms of degradation the super soft presents an interesting challenge. Some teams can use the super soft for a long stint, however some teams will have to work hard to maintain the super soft from degradation. This means that usage of the super soft tyre will be the key point to the race. The medium tyre takes longer to warm up than the super soft, even in these hot conditions. In the race medium tyre will be very durable, however with a slower ultimate lap time than the super soft.”

Pos Driver       Team                      Q1        Q2        Q3      

 1. Trulli       Toyota                (B) 1:32.779  1:32.671  1:33.431  

 2. Glock        Toyota                (B) 1:33.165  1:32.613  1:33.712  

 3. Vettel       Red Bull-Renault      (B) 1:32.680  1:32.474  1:34.015  

 4. Button       Brawn-Mercedes        (B) 1:32.978  1:32.842  1:34.044  

 5. Hamilton     McLaren-Mercedes      (B) 1:32.851  1:32.877  1:34.196  

 6. Barrichello  Brawn-Mercedes        (B) 1:33.116  1:32.842  1:34.239  

 7. Alonso       Renault               (B) 1:33.627  1:32.860  1:34.578  

 8. Massa        Ferrari               (B) 1:33.297  1:33.014  1:34.818  

 9. Rosberg      Williams-Toyota       (B) 1:33.672  1:33.166  1:35.134 

10. Raikkonen    Ferrari               (B) 1:33.117  1:32.827  1:35.380 

11. Kovalainen   McLaren-Mercedes      (B) 1:33.479 

12. Nakajima     Williams-Toyota       (B) 1:33.221 

13. Kubica       BMW-Sauber            (B) 1:33.495 

14. Heidfeld     BMW-Sauber            (B) 1:33.377 

15. Piquet       Renault               (B) 1:33.608

16. Sutil        Force India-Mercedes  (B) 1:33.722 

17. Buemi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B) 1:33.753 

18. Fisichella   Force India-Mercedes  (B) 1:33.910 

19. Webber       Red Bull-Renault      (B) 1:34.038 

20. Bourdais     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B) 1:34.159

All Timing Unofficial

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Usual service seems to have resumed from the last race with the recently cleared ‘double decker’ diffuser teams still ending fastest of the day along with the Red Bulls.

Hamilton however also looks in with a shot in qualifying tomorrow as he’s cars new diffuser seems to have given him some much needed additional speed. The Brit finished the first free practice on top.

Rosberg took that role in FP2, continuing with his impressive Friday form. Kimi Raikkonen however looks to have another tough weekend ahead of him, with his KERS less car proving as slow and challenging we all feared it would be. He finished the day fourteenth overall.

It looks like tomorrow will be a close at the front in Q3 - lets just hope the Kimster makes it through to the top ten shot out to be in with a chance of a much needed points finish on Sunday.

Free Practice 1
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:37.334 + 22
2. Button Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1:37.450 + 0.116 18
3. Barrichello Brawn GP-Mercedes (B) 1:37.566 + 0.232 19
4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:37.672 + 0.338 23
5. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:37.752 + 0.418 20
6. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:37.764 + 0.430 19
7. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:37.860 + 0.526 24
8. Glock Toyota (B) 1:37.894 + 0.560 21
9. Alonso Renault (B) 1:38.089 + 0.755 19
10. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:38.195 + 0.861 24
11. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:38.223 + 0.889 23
12. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:38.274 + 0.940 20
13. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:38.307 + 0.973 26
14. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:38.319 + 0.985 18
15. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:38.418 + 1.084 20
16. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:38.456 + 1.122 21
17. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:38.460 + 1.126 19
18. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:38.463 + 1.129 18
19. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:38.730 + 1.396 25
20. Piquet Renault (B) 1:38.825 + 1.491 20

Free Practice 2
Pos Driver Team Time Laps
1. Button Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:35.679 35
2. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:35.704 + 0.025 36
3. Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes (B) 1:35.881 + 0.202 35
4. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:36.105 + 0.426 32
5. Vettel Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:36.167 + 0.488 22
6. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:36.217 + 0.538 42
7. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:36.377 + 0.698 32
8. Glock Toyota (B) 1:36.548 + 0.869 40
9. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:36.674 + 0.995 34
10. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:36.800 + 1.121 34
11. Sutil Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:36.829 + 1.150 30
12. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:36.847 + 1.168 34
13. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:36.941 + 1.262 28
14. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:37.054 + 1.375 33
15. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:37.219 + 1.540 34
16. Piquet Renault (B) 1:37.273 + 1.594 36
17. Kubica BMW-Sauber (B) 1:37.491 + 1.812 34
18. Heidfeld BMW-Sauber (B) 1:37.544 + 1.865 28
19. Alonso Renault (B) 1:37.638 + 1.959 28
20. Fisichella Force India-Mercedes (B) 1:37.750 + 2.071 31

All Timing Unofficial

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The FIA International Court of Appeal (ICA) has rejected protests against the diffusers used by the Brawn, Toyota and Williams teams, after concluding that their ‘double decker’ designs comply with the 2009 regulations.

BMW Sauber, Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault had all questioned the legality of the diffusers, but following Tuesday’s hearing in Paris, the ICA decided that race stewards in Australia and Malaysia had made the right call in declaring them legal.

Full statement from the FIA: 
The FIA International Court of Appeal has decided to deny the appeals submitted against decisions numbered 16 to 24 taken by the Panel of the Stewards on 26 March at the 2009 Grand Prix of Australia and counting towards the 2009 FIA Formula One World Championship. 

Based on the arguments heard and evidence before it, the Court has concluded that the Stewards were correct to find that the cars in question comply with the applicable regulations.

Full reasons for this decision will be provided in due course.

Source - The Official Formula 1 Website

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Press Release

Stewards Decision - Australian GP 

02/04/2009 

PENALTY IMPOSED ON DRIVER NO 1 LEWIS HAMILTON AND COMPETITOR VODAFONE MCLAREN MERCEDES

SUMMARY OF KEY CONSIDERATIONS

At the first hearing following the Australian Grand Prix the Stewards did not have the benefit of the radio exchanges between driver No 1 Lewis Hamilton and his Team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes nor did they have access to the comments to the Media given by Lewis Hamilton immediately after the end of the race.

From the video recordings available to the Stewards during the hearing it appeared that Jarno Trulli’s car left the track and car No 1 moved into third place. It then appeared that Trulli overtook Hamilton to regain third place, which at the time was prohibited as it was during the Safety Car period.

During the hearing, held approximately one hour after the end of the race, the Stewards and the Race Director questioned Lewis Hamilton and his Team Manager David Ryan specifically about whether there had been an instruction given to Hamilton to allow Trulli to overtake. Both the driver and the Team Manager stated that no such instruction had been given. The Race Director specifically asked Hamilton whether he had consciously allowed Trulli to overtake. Hamilton insisted that he had not done so. 

The new elements presented to the Stewards several days after the 2009 Australian Grand Prix which led to the reconvened Stewards Meeting clearly show that:

a.    Immediately after the race and before Lewis Hamilton attended the Stewards Meeting he gave an interview to the Media where he clearly stated that the Team had told him to let Trulli pass.

b.    Furthermore, the radio exchanges between the driver and the Team contain two explicit orders from the Team to let the Toyota pass.

The Stewards, having learned about the radio exchanges and the Media interview, felt strongly that they had been misled by the driver and his Team Manager which led to Jarno Trulli being unfairly penalised and Lewis Hamilton gaining third place.

Source & audio available at FIA

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Australian GP - Sunday Bridgestone Press Release - 29th March

Bridgestone Potenza slick tyres made their grand prix return in the Australian Grand Prix where Jenson Button made the perfect debut for the Brawn GP team by using a medium-medium-super soft tyre strategy to win the first race of the season run to Formula One’s exciting new regulations.

Button took his race win leading team-mate Rubens Barrichello and Panasonic Toyota Racing driver Jarno Trulli across the line, however Trulli was later penalised for passing whilst behind the safety car, and fourth across the line Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) was awarded third. Barrichello used the same strategy as Button, whilst Hamilton started on the super soft tyre and twice changed to the medium. The latest specification cars and Bridgestone’s slick tyres meant an exciting and challenging 58 laps in Albert Park with the different performance of Bridgestone’s two compounds one of the talking points of the event.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development
How was the first race of 2009 from Bridgestone’s perspective?
“Firstly, congratulations to Jenson Button and the Brawn GP team for winning and Rubens Barrichello for coming second in an exceptionally exciting race. Congratulations too, to the FIA for the new regulations and the teams for developing such exciting and quick new cars. This was a significant race as it shows that the changes for 2009 have made a big difference for Formula One. Bridgestone’s slick tyres and our new allocation philosophy gave competitors a lot to think about and some managed better than others. Tyre strategy was crucial to making up places, and the key to getting a good result here was having a good setup with the super soft tyre as the performance of this tyre dropped off very quickly. The medium tyre was very robust and allowed good strategy and setup options for teams.”

What did you think of the different tyre strategies used?
“This was the first race for teams with our new tyres so there were many different approaches over the weekend. From Saturday’s data we knew that the super soft tyre was around 1.2 seconds faster than the medium over its first flying lap so those who started on the super soft had a good advantage at the beginning. However, those who used the super soft for their last stint benefitted from the improved track surface due to rubber laid during the race. We predicted that the super soft tyre would be around 5-6 seconds slower if it was used from the start of the race until half distance, which is why we did not see many long stints on this tyre.”

Protest lodged over Brawn, Toyota and Williams diffusers

The much-talked-about diffuser designs on the Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams cars have become the subject of an offical protest from rivals in Melbourne, after they cleared Thursday scrutineering with the Albert Park stewards.

All three teams are believed to have found a loophole in the regulations which allows them to run a taller diffuser. However, four fellow teams - BMW Sauber, Ferrari, Red Bull and Renault - have objected, questioning the legality of the designs.

The stewards must now decide whether to allow the cars in question to race in their current form. However, should there be any appeal over that decision, it would come down to the FIA to determine the diffusers’ legality, possibly at a later date.

Source - F1.com