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Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes) used Bridgestone’s wet Potenza Formula One
tyre to set a time of 1min 25.368secs for pole position at Fuji Speedway for
this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Hamilton beat team-mate Fernando Alonso to the first place on the grid for
tomorrow’s race by just seven hundredths of a second, meaning an all McLaren
Mercedes front row. Ferrari team-mates Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa are
on the second row after setting the third and fourth fastest times.
Conditions were difficult today. Qualifying almost didn’t take place due to
thick fog, as the required medical helicopter cannot fly when visibility is
too low. Persistent light rain through the day also meant that the circuit
was wet. Consequently, running took place on Bridgestone’s wet and extreme
wet tyres, the dry grooved Potenza tyres not being used.
This morning’s free practice session started 30 minutes late due to the fog
making it impossible for the helicopter to fly. After it did start, only
four and a half minutes of running took place before the helicopter was
grounded once more, and the session was later abandoned with no further
running taking place. During this brief period of track action, only three
drivers completed timed laps. Alex Wurz (Williams Toyota) was the fastest
with a time of 1min 32.746secs, set on Bridgestone’s extreme wet Potenza
Formula one tyre.
Hirohide Hamashima, Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development
said:
“Unfortunately we saw weather today that is typical of Mount Fuji and we had
very little running in the morning practice session. However, conditions did
improve in the afternoon and qualifying was able to go ahead for all the
fans here. In the first part of qualifying, teams were able to get enough
running to determine their set-ups. In this session, the extreme wet tyre
was used at first, with the wet being the tyre to use when the circuit was
damp. In the second and final sessions, the wet tyre was the correct one to
use. McLaren and Ferrari both found good set-ups, as shown by their
performances. Tomorrow the weather could be very different and we could see
a driver from far down the grid put in a good performance, especially as it
will be difficult to decide the correct set-up because of the weather.”
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