European GP: Bridgestone Qualifying

Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel scored his fourth pole position of the season after using Bridgestone's super soft compound Potenza tyre around the streets of Valencia for the European Grand Prix.

Vettel set a 1min 37.587secs lap - a new pole record - and will be joined on the front row of the grid for tomorrow's race by team-mate Mark Webber. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton set the third fastest time and will be joined on the second row by local favourite Fernando Alonso (Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro). Vettel was also fastest in the morning practice session.

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

What was significant about today's running?
"Today the track condition continued to improve and we saw a new record set for pole position. The morning session did not point to a clear pace advantage between the two tyres, with the super soft offering more grip but less rear stability than the medium. The cooler temperatures this morning and the rapid track improvement made it difficult to analyse the data so qualifying was interesting for different approaches in use of the super soft or medium compounds."

What are the tyre strategy considerations for tomorrow's race?
"Tomorrow has potential to be quite interesting as the super soft appears to give quite good durability here, which offers the possibility for longer stints from this tyre than we have seen in many races, and certainly greater durability than we saw in Montreal. As overtaking has been difficult here in the past, track position and the timing of the pit stops will be crucial."

Stats of the Day 
Practice Three 11:00 - 12:00
Driver             Team                    Time        Tyre
Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull Racing 	   1m 38.052s  SS
Robert Kubica 	   Renault F1 Team 	   1m 38.154s  SS 
Mark Webber 	   Red Bull Racing 	   1m 38.313s  SS

Qualifying 14:00 - 15:00
Driver             Team                    Time        Tyre
Sebastian Vettel   Red Bull Racing 	   1m 37.587s  SS
Mark Webber 	   Red Bull Racing 	   1m 37.662s  SS
Lewis Hamilton 	   Vodafone McLaren 	   1m 37.969s  SS

Compounds used: Hard / Soft
Temperatures 	   Ambient    Track	  Weather
AM - Practice 3    25C-26C    30C-40C 	  Sunny
PM - Qualifying    27C 	      45C-44C-45C Sunny