Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director of Bridgestone Motorsport: “Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes for their win. We saw a fantastic race where tyre strategy was central to the excitement. Bridgestone Canada and Bridgestone USA used this race as a great promotional and marketing platform. They had several well received PR initiatives and also invited many important guests for the weekend itself. Montreal saw a sell-out crowd illustrating how popular F1 can be in North America. I am very pleased that Formula 1 has returned to this wonderful location especially when we get a race as exciting as today’s.”
Hirohide Hamashima – Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development: “Tyre strategy and circuit evolution were vital factors in today’s race. The circuit was at its hottest of the weekend, meaning tyre performance was better than earlier in the weekend. The track improved after around ten laps, when rubber was laid on the surface, assisted by the hotter temperatures. We saw the race winner complete 44 laps on the medium compound, illustrating the extent of this circuit improvement. At the start the degradation was high, even with the medium compound, which is why we saw such early pit stops. There were an interesting mix of pit stop strategies and tyre compound orders. A one stop strategy was not possible today and we saw a variety of two and three or more stops. The track surface and tyre performance evolution made the choices on the pitwall very difficult to make.”
