European GP: Bridgestone Friday Practice

Bridgestone's super soft tyre took home hero Fernando Alonso to the fastest time of the day in his Scuderia Ferrari in glorious weather at Valencia on day one of the European Grand Prix.

Alonso set a 1m 39.283secs lap in the afternoon session. The morning saw Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team driver Nico Rosberg go fastest, using the medium compound. Track conditions improved dramatically through the day as the surface was cleaned and rubber laid.

Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development

What was significant about today's running?
"Today was a typical Valencia Friday. In the morning the track surface was very dirty and we saw a lot of slip and slide from the cars. Finding grip was a challenge and we saw front and rear graining, both transverse from traction and braking demands, and lateral from cornering forces. The front left tyre suffered particularly. The graining was sufficient to mean that degradation was similar to that seen in Montreal. By the afternoon, the track conditions had developed a lot and tyre performance improved correspondingly."

How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?
"If the track condition continues to improve as it has today we will see a lot stronger tyre performance than we did in Canada, even though the allocation here is the same with the medium and super soft Bridgestone Potenzas. Qualifying should favour the super soft once more rather than it being far more open as it was two weeks ago. Because of the significant track improvement here a definite racing line develops, so using other parts of the track is difficult. This means that pit stop timing and track position will be important factors, and the tyre allocation should allow a good range of options."

More F1 News from Bridgestone Motorsport

Stats of the Day:
Practice One 10:00 - 11:30: 
Driver 		   Team			Time 	    Tyre 
Nico Rosberg       Mercedes GP F1 Team  1m 41.175s  M
Lewis Hamilton     Vodafone McLaren     1m 41.339s  M
Jenson Button      Vodafone McLaren     1m 41.383s  M
 

Practice Two 14:00 - 15:30
Driver 		   Team			Time 	    Tyre
Fernando Alonso    Scuderia Ferrari 	1m 39.283s  SS
Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull Racing 	1m 39.339s  SS
Mark Webber 	   Red Bull Racing 	1m 39.427s  SS

Compounds used: Medium (prime) / Super soft (option)

Temperatures 	 Ambient      Track 	   Weather
AM - Practice 1  25C-26C      32C-37C      Sunny
PM - Practice 2  29C-30C      44C-46C-45C  Sunny