Hirohide Hamashima – Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development:
What was significant about today’s running?
“Today we faced a dirty and dusty track and we experienced relatively cool conditions, although not as cold as it was yesterday. As expected, there was not a lot of grip given by the track, although this improved through the day. We saw graining, particularly on the front tyres, although this was only mild and no cause for concern.”
How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?
“The soft compound provided the fastest lap time today and a quicker warm-up, although the overall lap time difference was not as big as we have seen at some tracks. This could mean that some of the top teams opt for the hard compound in Q1 tomorrow to save their softer tyres for the later sessions. Of course, the last three out of four races here have been wet so the weather, as always, will be the most important consideration for tyre performance.”
