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Brawn GP driver Jenson Button used a super soft - super soft - medium tyre
strategy to win a thrilling Bahrain Grand Prix in searing hot conditions at
the Bahrain International Circuit.
Button finished 7.1 seconds ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who used the same
strategy in his Red Bull. Pole-sitter Jarno Trulli used a super soft -
medium - super soft strategy in his Panasonic Toyota Racing car to finish
third. Bridgestone's super soft tyre worked particularly well here, even
with a track temperature of over 50 degrees Celsius, delivering good grip
and consistency.
Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre
Development
How was the race from Bridgestone's perspective?
"Today was a very exciting race, particularly from a tyre perspective. We
saw a good range of strategies, and when to use the medium compound was a
difficult decision for teams, as it delivered a consistently slower lap time
than the super soft. The super soft performed well and heat degradation was
not a big problem even in the extreme heat of Bahrain. There was some very
good tyre management from drivers and also some strong running from
competitors on the medium tyre too. I think today has shown just how
exciting racing can be with two Bridgestone tyres with different
characteristics with our 2009 allocations."
As the second dry race of 2009, does this help with the understanding of the
2009 tyres?
"We have accumulated a lot of good data from the first four race weekends
and this has been very useful. The other fully dry race in Australia was
unusual as the track surface did not evolve in the same way as we had seen
in previous seasons, so the tyre performance did not improve as we predicted
there. Here in Bahrain was interesting because of the extreme heat, but our
tyres performed well, and continued to give competitors a challenge for how
best to use them during the course of the race." |
