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Fernando Alonso (McLaren Mercedes) has taken his fourth win of the season,
and fourth in his career on Bridgestone Potenza tyres, after a dominant
weekend from McLaren Mercedes and the reigning world champion in the Italian
Grand Prix at Monza.
Alonso used a medium-medium-soft tyre strategy to win, with team-mate Lewis
Hamilton finishing six seconds behind on the same strategy. Kimi Raikkonen
(Ferrari) finished third after he employed a one-stop strategy, making a
strong start on the soft compound Bridgestone and finishing on the medium,
21 seconds behind Hamilton.
BMW Sauber team-mates Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica finished fourth and
fifth, Nico Rosberg (Williams) finished sixth, Heikki Kovalainen (Renault)
finished seventh and Jenson Button (Honda) took the final championship
point. Twelve of the classified finishers used a one-stop strategy, with a
two-stop strategy used by eight cars. Two cars failed to finish. The fastest
race lap, a 1min 22.871secs, was set by Alonso on lap 15 on the medium
compound Bridgestone Potenza.
Hamilton stays in the lead of the drivers’ championship with 92 points,
three points ahead of Alonso on 89. Raikkonen moves into third place with 74
points. McLaren Mercedes lead the constructors’ championship 166 points to
Ferrari’s 143. BMW Sauber are in third place with 86 points.
Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres will next be in race action at the ING
Belgian Grand Prix at Spa Francorchamps on September 14-16where
Bridgestone’s medium and soft compound Potenza tyres will once more be used.
Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering
Operations said:
“The tyres performed well, even with the track temperatures and the pace
seen from the two McLaren Mercedes. The vast majority of cars did a one stop
strategy and they did not sustain any tyre problems despite the longer
stints this requires. The track certainly came towards our compound choice.
Blistering was not an issue, to the contrary to what we saw in practice on
Friday afternoon. There was very little to choose between the two compounds
in the race in terms of wear and heat resistance." |
