Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber used Bridgestone’s soft compound tyre to blast to a record pole position with a time of 1min 19.995secs for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Webber edged out team-mate Sebastian Vettel with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton qualifying in third. Vettel went fastest in the morning practice session, using the soft compound for a time of 1min 20.528secs.
Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima – Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development What was significant about today’s running?
“There was significant rain last night and also stronger wind today at the circuit so there wasn’t as much improvement in lap times from yesterday as we would often see. The rain washed away a lot of the rubber laid on track and the wind affects the cars so it was a challenging day for teams and drivers in that respect.”
What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow’s race?
“Every driver in the top ten will start on the soft compound so managing this tyre with heavy fuel loads will be a challenge. Initially, drivers will have to be mindful of graining on the front left tyre, then as the race goes on they will have to be careful about rear traction. It will be rear tyre degradation which is the primary consideration for pit stop strategy so it will be interesting to see the different approaches to tomorrow’s race. Even today some drivers were finding rear traction was deteriorating in the rear sector when they pushed too hard.”
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