Bridgestone tyre performance as expected

McLaren Mercedes sensation Lewis Hamilton has blasted to the second consecutive pole position of his career after maximising the potential of the Bridgestone soft compound Potenza in qualifying for the US Grand Prix, the seventh round of the FIA Formula One World Championship.

Hamilton will head an all McLaren Mercedes front row with Fernando Alonso alongside for tomorrow's race start at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Alonso was quickest in all bar the final qualifying session and set the fastest time of the day. Today's temperatures were even hotter than in yesterday's running.

The second row tomorrow will feature Ferrari team-mates Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, whilst Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) was fifth fastest. Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) set his best qualifying performance so far this season with sixth fastest. Sebastian Vettel (BMW Sauber) impressed on his F1 qualifying debut with the seventh fastest time in his first time at this track, and will start with Toyota's Jarno Trulli alongside him.

Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations said:
"It was a very straightforward qualifying session today and both compounds of Bridgestone Potenza performed as expected. It was clear that the soft compound Potenza was the faster tyre and this was illustrated by every driver setting their fastest time on this tyre including Alonso's fastest time of the day. The difference in lap times between the two specifications is around four tenths and in terms of heat, wear rate and graining, both compounds have no issue and should be capable of any strategy the teams wish to use. This season has already been full of excitement with new drivers and we witnessed this again with the debut of a youngster by the name of Sebastian Vettel."

Stats of the Day 
Total amount of laps completed by all drivers: 768 laps 
Average number of laps per car: 35 laps 
Most laps by a driver: 51 - Sebastian Vettel 
Fastest lap: 1m 11.926s - Alonso in Q2 
Compounds: Medium and soft 

United States Grand Prix in 2006 
Ferrari's Michael Schumacher enjoyed his fifth US Grand 
Prix race win after a race where team-mate Felipe 
Massa had made a better start and led the race for 
the first 30 laps. Giancarlo Fisichella (Renault) 
and Jarno Trulli (Toyota) finished in third and 
fourth respectively. Only nine cars were classified
as finishers..

Temperatures    Ambient Track       Weather 
AM - Practice   27C-29C 34C-39C     Sunny 
PM - Qualifying 32C-31C 45C-47C-46C Sunny breezy - clouds