Variable conditions for Bridgestone in Brazil

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes) has used Bridgestone's super soft compound Potenza F1 tyre to set the fastest lap time on the first day of running for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos, Sao Paulo.

Hamilton completed his fastest lap, a 1min 12.767secs, with five minutes left to go in the afternoon's 90 minute practice session. He was over a tenth faster than his nearest competitor, team-mate Fernando Alonso, who set his time using the soft compound. The Ferrari pairing of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were third and fourth fastest and the fastest ten drivers were covered by just over a second.

In the morning practice session Raikkonen was quickest with a time of 1min 19.580secs using Bridgestone's standard wet tyre. His team-mate, Felipe Massa, was second fastest and Renault's Heikki Kovalainen third. Notably, championship contender Alonso, and three other drivers, opted not to set timed laps in the wet conditions.

The fastest lap time achieved today was just over two tenths slower than the fastest Friday lap set in last year's competitive tyre environment by Alex Wurz (Williams Cosworth), 1min 12.547secs. Drivers Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes), Jenson Button (Honda) and Takuma Sato (Super Aguri) were found to have been in breach of Article 25.3 of the Sporting Regulations by using more than one set of wet tyres during the first practice session. All three have been requested to report to the Stewards of the Meeting.

Hirohide Hamashima - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development, said:
"In the first session the circuit was very slippery to begin with as it was wet and oil was still coming out from the new track surface. However, by the end of this session the drivers felt a lot more grip from the track. The second session started with a damp track, but it progressively dried out. Drivers experienced a lot of understeer with the track still damp, and this meant that tyre wear was high on the right front tyre. Once more, the track improved greatly during the session and grip was far better at the end. With the limited amount of running on the dry tyres it is too early to make a conclusion about the differences between the soft and super soft compounds, and the weather prediction for tomorrow is for it to be hot so the situation could change dramatically."