German Grand Prix Formula One race report

Today’s report from Formula One teams & drivers in Hockenheim.

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Results

Constructors’ championship

Drivers’ championship

2010 SANTANDER GERMAN GRAND PRIX

LEWIS HAMILTON
MP4-25A-04
Started: 6th
Finished: 4th
Fastest lap: 1m16.503s (+0.679s) 5th
Pitstops: One: on lap 14 (Opt-Pri)
2010 points: 157 (1st)

“I did everything I could at the start, because I knew that that was the place where I could really make up some ground. Unfortunately, the guys in front were phenomenally quick, but I still managed to make up a couple of places.

“It was a very tough race today – the car didn’t feel fantastic and the Ferraris and Red Bulls were very fast. We hoped the gap would be closer in the race than it was in qualifying, and it was – but, even so, we’ve got to make up some pace on our main rivals.

“We need to go back and figure out where we can improve, and pick it up again very quickly. Today, we did everything we could do – now we just have to work harder than ever to get ahead of the cars in front.�

JENSON BUTTON
MP4-25A-03
Started: 5th
Finished: 5th
Fastest lap: 1m16.451s (+0.627s) 4th
Pitstops: One: on lap 22 (Opt-Pri)
2010 points: 143 (2nd

“My start was pretty good, I got away fantastically well off the line – but we got to Turn One, and Sebastian [Vettel], who was fighting the Ferraris, braked pretty early, and I nearly went into the back of him. I had to take avoiding action and go wide at Turn One – the thing is, I hit the brakes, and soon as you do that in Turn One, you lose a lot of time. So I lost three places, but thankfully I got one of those back pretty quickly.

“In the first stint, I looked after the tyres pretty well. I was at the back of the group, and it was a strategy that we’d planned before the race. After my stop, my pace relative to Lewis was very similar, and I settled in never less than two seconds behind him. But I couldn’t go any quicker because I was losing downforce to the car in front.

“Lewis and I showed today that we got the maximum out of the car – it’s just that the car isn’t quite quick enough at the moment.�

MARTIN WHITMARSH, Team principal, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
“Today we saw yet another impressively competent day’s work from both our drivers – and the result was 22 very valuable world championship points.

“In truth, in the circumstances, that’s probably about as many as we could have hoped to score today.

“We arrived in Germany in first place in the constructors’ championship and in first and second places in the drivers’ championship – and we leave Germany in exactly the same positions. So that’s extremely positive.

“From here on in, we’ll work as hard as we can to maintain and improve our positions at the head of both world championships. We’ll continue to develop our car in the weeks and months ahead, with a view to adding as many world championship points to the milestone total of 300 we’ve amassed this season as of today.�

source: mclaren.com

2010 GERMAN GRAND PRIX, HOCKENHEIM, 25 JULY, RACE

Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher finished the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim in eighth and ninth positions today.

Michael made up three places at the start to be running in eighth position with Nico shadowing him in ninth place. He made his only pit stop on lap 14 with Nico staying out longer and making his stop on lap 24. Despite the two quickest stops of the race, neither driver was able to jump Robert Kubica, with Nico’s later stop being enough to move him ahead of Michael.

Drivers Car No. Chassis No. Race Result / Fastest Lap
Nico Rosberg 4 MGP W01 / 04 P8 1:16.609
Michael Schumacher 3 MGP W01 / 02 P9 1:17.088
Weather Hot & sunny
Temperatures Air: 21-23°C Track: 28-36°C

NICO ROSBERG
“We made the best of our situation today but it is frustrating after being on the podium at the last race. Achieving eighth place is damage limitation really and we were able to minimise the loss to Robert in terms of points but it has generally been a struggle this weekend. My strategy was good and the guys made a fantastic effort with my pit stop being the quickest of the race. There are surely better times ahead in Hungary.”

MICHAEL SCHUMACHER
“I had a pretty good start today but from then onwards, there was not much more that we could do. We were targeting to stay out long but we changed the strategy to react to the circumstances and maybe I could have finished slightly higher. But in the end, that would not have changed much in a race where we had hoped to be more competitive. What we achieved after my stop was the maximum that was possible. Of course I would have wished for more, especially as our race performance tends to be better than qualifying, but it did not work out. We will certainly not get nervous but we have to sit down, analyse the reasons and put the right solutions in place.”

ROSS BRAWN
“We did a reasonable job today with the car that we currently have. It was a little bit frustrating, particularly for Nico, as he was in a very strong position to get past Robert Kubica with his strategy. Unfortunately he lost some time getting tangled up with Mark Webber and ended up coming out just behind Robert. The car was more consistent in the race than in qualifying but we have to find some more performance. The team and drivers did a great job, we have good reliability and the two fastest pit stops today, so all the foundations are in place for when we develop a better car.”

NORBERT HAUG
“After Nico’s podium at the last race in Silverstone, coming home in eighth and ninth places was not the result that we had been looking for at one of our home races. However our grid positions were not a good base for the race, so better than P8 for Nico and P9 for Michael were not really possible. We could not make our new upgrades work to the planned extent which compromised our speed and lap times. The team worked relentlessly to get the new parts ready for this race, so two points finishes are at least a small reward for their hard work, even if they were not the positions we were hoping for. A big thank you to all of our guys for their efforts, and now we will try to get better results next weekend in Hungary.”

source: mercedes-gp.com

LOCAL BOY DOES GOOD

Car 5 SEBASTIAN VETTEL, Finish Position: 3rd, Start Position: 1st
“Normally we have very good starts, so I’m not really sure what happened today. I had quite a lot of grip, I dumped the clutch, but got bogged down, so the first five to ten metres of the acceleration were poor. I was lucky I didn’t stall the engine, but I lost the momentum so I knew that it would be very tight with Fernando who I was already side by side with. There was no way I could stay ahead of him and then I was surprised to see Felipe coming from the left. But, after that we still had a good race. The closer I got to the car in front, I began to feel tyres losing grip and starting to grain, but I think for most of the race the Ferraris were probably a tenth or two quicker than us. It was difficult to keep up the pace. Towards the end we were able to push again a little bit. We finished third and I think we can be proud of that. We achieved our maximum today and I was very pleased to be on the podium. It’s very special for me at my home Grand Prix, it’s great to see the people here and to be on the podium – to see everyone cheering is very nice and emotional.â€�

Car 6 MARK WEBBER, Finish Position: 6th, Start Position: 4th
“I enjoyed the first part of the race and had a good scrap with Lewis. He didn’t look too comfortable on the option tyre and I was getting held up a bit. When I came in for a pit stop, I thought Lewis might come in at the same time, but he stayed out a lap longer. In the end, the guys did a very good job, but we came back out in traffic. It was a little bit of a gamble to try and jump Lewis and we lost a bit of track to him. Jenson tried a different strategy and went longer and unfortunately was able to jump me. After that we had an oil consumption problem, so we had to concentrate on getting the car to the end. I wasn’t in the main fight today, but I’ll be back. It’s competitive at the front and that’s how it should be, so we’re looking forward to the next race.â€�

CHRISTIAN HORNER, Team Principal:
“Today’s race was dictated by the start. Unfortunately Sebastian didn’t get away cleanly and ended up on the right-hand side of the track. Massa got a good run on the left and we emerged from Turn one in P3 – that’s what shaped the race as far as Sebastian was concerned. With Mark, we took a calculated risk with the pit-stop. After that, he got caught up behind Rosberg, which cost him a bit of time and allowed Jenson to jump him. From there he did an excellent job in nursing an oil system issue that he managed well to the end of the race to score some important points. It was surprising what happened with the Ferraris, it looked to be a team order with the cars switching position. If so, it’s a shame for Formula One and the fans that they were deprived of a race between the two Ferrari drivers today.�

FABRICE LOM, Renault, Principal Engineer Track Support:
“What a difficult race. Sebastian had a bad start, which compromised his chances, so third was the best he could achieve against the Ferraris on this track. For Mark, it was a very difficult race. We had an oil system problem which we had to manage and we had to ask a lot of him, so that the car could get to the finish. He drove very well and did everything that we requested, so a big thanks to him for that. As a team we really deserved the points we got today; now we need to find a bit more performance to fight back for victory at the next races.�

source: redbullracing.com

coming soon

source: shell.com

Starting on the dirty side of the grid in P8 and P10, the pair of Williams FW32s struggled to make a clean start to this afternoon’s German Grand Prix. With both Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg having lost track position in the early phase of the race, the team had little opportunity to reclaim the ground and despite a clear step up in recent car performance, which was demonstrated again in qualifying, both cars finished frustratingly outside of the points.

Rubens Barrichello:
I had a very difficult start to the race, my pull away was not very good. I was running in position for the hairpin when Kobayashi’s move on the inside left no braking margin, which backed everybody up. During both stints on the option and prime tyre, our pace was much the same as the cars in front, but having lost track position, there wasn’t enough pace differential to make up position.

Nico Hulkenberg:
Really the race today was defined by the start, which for me was not good and the places lost could not be recovered. I ran a long first stint on the option tyre, which was the right thing to do given our position, but it was very hard to make any progress taking the option tyre to lap 34. The car pace wasn’t really there today and with a pretty uneventful race, there wasn’t even the possibility of an unexpected opportunity to reclaim some advantage.

Sam Michael, Technical Director:
It was not a satisfying outcome to miss out on points today. We struggled with poor starts on both cars which dropped us a couple of positions immediately. With similar pace to all the cars around us, we then tried two quite different strategies to recover, but nothing went wrong with the other team strategies, so we couldn’t make a difference. We’ll now look to improvements for next week’s race in Budapest.

source: attwilliams.com

Robert Kubica, P7
Fastest lap: 1:17.166
Started race on option
Pit stop: Lap 17, time in pits: 18.168 (prime)

Robert: I think we had a good weekend considering the car’s potential at this circuit. There were some exciting moments during the race: I made a good start and was fighting to pass Hamilton into turn two when he braked early, and I ended up losing positions to Button and Webber. Then, after my stop, I had a good battle with Michael to keep my position – but I also had to make sure I didn’t lose too much time fighting with him, because I had to maintain a good pace to stay in front of Rosberg who hadn’t yet stopped. Overall, though, the gap to the front-runners was too big for us to fight for more than seventh place, so I think we must be pleased that we achieved our maximum.

Vitaly Petrov, P10
Fastest lap: 1:17.198
Started race on option
Pit stop: Lap 23, time in pits: 18.147 (prime)

Vitaly: This was an interesting race for me and I am very happy to have scored my first point in dry conditions – especially because I thought that I had finished 11th, so it was an even better surprise when I found out I was tenth! I managed to gain a position at the start, the pace was good today and I made a big effort to push at the right time before the pit stop, which helped me climb two more places. I am pleased with my race but I know that I could have done better in qualifying, so I still need to work hard and put all of the pieces together across the weekend.

Eric Boullier, Team Principal
There were some very positive points from today’s race. The team did a strong job on the strategy and with the pit stops; Robert achieved the full potential of the car and showed we were the fourth quickest team this weekend; and Vitaly produced an excellent drive. He showed good pace, pushed when he needed to in order to gain positions and scored the final point. On the other hand, in terms of pure performance, we cannot be satisfied to be lapped by Ferrari. It shows that we still have a lot of work to do, but we know that we have some good upgrades on the way.

Alan Permane, Chief Race Engineer
We knew that our pace today wasn’t good enough to match the top three teams. Robert did a great job to retain his position: he managed to stay ahead of both Mercedes around the pit stops, and that is not easy to do when you are trying to defend against two cars stopping at different times. He got the best result we could have hoped for today. As for Vitaly, he put in an excellent drive: he made a good start, and then managed to overtake two cars at the stops. This meant we finished with both cars in the points for the second time this year, and we can be happy with that.

Rémi Taffin, Head of Engine Operations
This was a good result when compared with Mercedes, the team we are fighting in the championship, with one car finishing ahead of them and one right behind. Robert did a strong job to finish where he started, which was the most we could hope for without any problems for the quicker cars in front. Vitaly did a super job, and showed that his pace could match Robert’s here at Hockenheim. Unfortunately, he didn’t manage to qualify as high up the grid as he could have done, but his drive today showed that we can count on him. Our engines were on their third race but we were able to push them to the limit all race without any problems. That means we will have fresh units next weekend, in addition to more progress with our development programme.

source: renaultf1.com

2010 German Grand Prix Report

Adrian Sutil (car 14, VJM03/03): 17th
Tonio Liuzzi (car 15, VJM03/01): 16th

The Force India F1 Team missed out on scoring points for only the second time this season in today’s German Grand Prix. With Adrian starting from P19 and Tonio P22 the race was always going to be an uphill battle, and the mount proved too high during the 67 lap race. Tonio came home in 16th position and Adrian just behind in 17th.

Despite missing out on points Force India maintains its sixth position in the constructors’ championship.

Adrian Sutil (car 14)
What can we say, it’s been a very disappointing weekend. The first lap I had some contact with Tonio and lost some positions. It was always our strategy that, if after the start I had not made up places, I would pit on the first lap to change to the prime tyres and make up positions when other cars stopped later on. It was a good plan as you have nothing to lose when you are that far down, but there was some confusion in the stop. Tonio had radioed to say he was coming in for a front wing change and as we both arrived at the same time the tyre sets got mixed up and then I had to come in and pit again to get the correct set. Once they were on I got going and I could get quite far up the field but then I had to stop when the set went off. This weekend we’ve just not been quick enough but we feel it’s just a blip and not anything too serious – at some races you just don’t run well, so it’s best to write it off and look forward to the next races.

Tonio Liuzzi (car 15)
It’s been a pretty disappointing race weekend overall. I had one contact on the first lap and we believed we had damaged the front wing, so I came to the pits for a change but there was a mix-up in the stop with the tyres so I had to come back in again. It was a shame as I had had a good first lap until that point and afterwards we had a really strong race pace. It was always going to be tough, but the pace we showed was the same as the top ten runners. We have to look at these positives and look forward to the next race in Budapest.

Otmar Szafnauer, chief operating officer
Of course we are disappointed with the result today as we believed we could have finished much further up than we ultimately did. It was a case of cause-and-effect – one bad thing led to another. We had some issues in practice, which meant qualifying was not ideal, and in trying to be aggressive at the start we had a coming together, which in turn led to the confusion in the stops. We will draw a line under it and focus on the new developments we have coming and we can take away some positives – we ran at a strong pace on both cars when they were fighting for position and we ran reliably in the race yet again

source: forceindiaf1.com

Jaime Alguersuari (STR5-03)  Pos.  15th
“Regarding the incident with Sebastien, I was on the inside going into Turn 6 and I braked well leaving enough space, but there seemed to be some problems in front of me, as the cars ahead all slowed much more than is normal. I braked again, but it was not enough and I drove into him. Naturally, I am sorry for that. I had to pit for a new nose and we switched to the soft tyres at that point, having started on the hards. In terms of performance, the car was quite fast and I was able to do some good lap times. I am looking forward to doing better in Hungary, a circuit where at least I have already driven a Formula 1 car last year.�

Sebastien Buemi  (STR5-02)  Retired
“I made a really good start and was able to pass three or four cars and then when we came to the hairpin, I was braking in the middle of the corner and my team-mate came from a long way back and ended up driving onto the top of my car. The damage was too bad for me to continue, which is a real shame after I had got such a quick start.�

source: tororosso.com

Race day in Germany began with Lotus Racing Chief Mechanic Phil Spencer, Deputy Team Principal Kamarudin Meranun and Chief Executive Officer Riad Asmat paying their respects to Team Lotus legend Jim Clark at his Hockenheim memorial, but it was a disappointing Sunday for the team after both Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen recorded DNFs. Jarno Trulli had a strong start and was running 15th, but retired on lap four after a gearbox problem brought his race to an end. Heikki Kovalainen was running well in the race but was forced to retire on lap 60 after a coming together with de la Rosa’s Sauber.

Jarno Trulli (Chassis T127-04) “I made a very good start and then suddenly I lost the gearbox and unfortunately that was it. We tried to reset it in the pit and I went out again but it didn’t work, so I think it was a mechanical issue with the box that brought the race to an early end. It’s very frustrating because I was having a very good weekend, probably the best of the whole season so far, and it’s like the luck just isn’t with me. We’ve got another chance next weekend so I hope the luck changes there.�

Heikki Kovalainen (Chassis T127-01) “A disappointing end but it was just one of those things that can happen when you’re having to let cars past. It was my mistake but I didn’t see the Sauber coming. I thought I was letting the Williams past, and didn’t see the Sauber so I closed the door and that was the end of the race. It’s a shame because I was running pretty well until then.�

Mike Gascoyne, Chief Technical Officer: “Ultimately a very disappointing day. Jarno lost second gear and had to retire and Heikki had to retire after contact with de la Rosa. Both cars made good starts – we started Jarno on the harder tyre and Heikki on the options to split the strategies, but Jarno’s race was over before he’d really started. Heikki drove a strong race and was comfortably leading the battle of the new teams before contact forced him to retire. Despite this it was still a strong showing from us, and now we move on to Hungary.�

Kamarudin Meranun, Deputy Team Principal: “It’s frustrating because we’d had a good weekend, in practice and qualifying. Very unfortunate for Jarno, and Heikki was doing well so it’s disappointing to see he couldn’t finish the race, not due to a mechanical issue, but because of an incident that was out of our control. So, even though it’s sad, we’ll pull through, and we’ll do a better job in Hungary.� 

Take a look at Jarno’s YouTube preview of the German GP here: Jarno’s Hockenheim Preview

source: lotusf1racing.my

coming soon

source: hispaniaf1team.com

German GP – Race – Sunday, 25.07.2010

Weather: dry, 21°C air, 30-33°C track

Despite suffering no technical problems and both drivers finishing the race, the team didn’t manage to score any more points at the German Grand Prix. Kamui Kobayashi finished 11th in Hockenheim, while Pedro de la Rosa came 14th.

Kamui Kobayashi: 11th
C29.02 / Ferrari 056
“I am not really happy with today’s race. I felt a lack of grip on both sets of tyres, and tyre degradation started quite early on. In qualifying the balance of the car was definitely better than today. However, I had a good start and made up two positions then. The crew did a good pit stop. I tried to overtake Michael Schumacher, who was held up by a back marker, but then we ended up fighting on the straight and this is not really a strength of our car yet. Later I tried to fight Vitaly Petrov, but could not get by him either.�

Pedro de la Rosa: 14th
C29.04 / Ferrari 056
“The first laps of the race were very difficult for me on the hard tyres. It was like driving on ice. My race actually started only after 20 or 25 laps when the tyre temperatures and grip were there. Then the car improved on every lap as it was getting lighter. But the end of the race was very disappointing for me. After my late pit stop I was on fresh tyres and wanted to fight for positions. After I passed Nico Hülkenberg the next cars in front were Rubens Barrichello and then Kamui. But I have to say the behavior of the back markers was a serious problem over the whole race, and in the end I crashed into one who had opened the door for Rubens but closed it immediately again.“

Peter Sauber, Team Principal:
“It was a good race and a good performance, but not the result we hoped for. Our goal now is to improve our qualifying performance in order to get the appropriate reward.�

James Key, Technical Director:
“Ultimately it’s a bit disappointing not to finish in the points. We decided to take a split strategy, with a gamble on Pedro’s side and a standard strategy on Kamui’s. Kamui drove well in a pack of cars and was probably held up early in the race. We brought him in to protect him against the cars directly around him, but it seems the option tyres lasted quite well for more laps and this enabled Vitaly Petrov to pass him immediately after his stop. He was then not able to re-pass him again, so we missed out on the points. With Pedro we decided to go as long as we felt we could, and then put the option tyres on at the end to see what was possible. Initially it worked well as he overtook Nico Hülkenberg, but then made contact with Heikki Kovalainen and damaged his front wing. It’s a shame it didn’t work out for us today, but it’s only one week before the next race where we want to do better.�

source: bmw-sauber-f1-team.ch

THE RACE

Virgin Racing’s Timo Glock drove a great race to finish the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim as the first driver in the new teams’ category – despite starting from the last row of the grid after taking a five place grid penalty for a changed gearbox.

Both Timo and Lucas opted to start on the hard Prime tyre while most of the other cars were on super-soft Options as expected. It was all a bit hectic on the first lap, and Timo was concerned that he had damaged his wing at the second corner. Lucas managed to get past both of the HRTs and was running close behind the Lotus of Heikki Kovalainen during the first part of the race, although the Primes did not work quite as well in the race as expected and the Finn was running on Options. Timo passed Yamamoto but couldn‘t get by Senna despite being clearly quicker and running on his tail for several laps.

When the Option-shod cars stopped for Primes, Lucas and Timo headed the new teams until around three-quarter distance, when Lucas suffered a broken rear wishbone whilst mid-corner, causing him to spin. Timo then stopped for Options and rejoined behind Kovalainen. He was very happy with the balance on the softer tyre and was catching the Lotus until the Finn was taken out of the race. From there Timo had a straightforward drive to the finish, showing good pace in comparison to the leaders. The recent updates to the car continue to show improvement, leaving the team in a strong position for the Hungarian Grand Prix in a week’s time.

Timo Glock, Race Driver #24
“It was a difficult start to the race as Lucas overtook me in a brilliant move, following the problems we experienced on Saturday which left us starting from the last row of the grid as a consequence of our gearbox change penalty. However, I had a really good start and overtook both HRT cars in turn one, which was good, but in turn 2 I lost everything again. It felt as if someone pushed me in the back and I ran wide and suddenly I was last again. I had to start the fight against the HRT again and overtook Yamamoto but I was stuck behind Senna because he had a good top speed. After the pitstop I had pretty good speed but then the blue flags came out again which penalised me too much. With the option tyre I had clear air and good pace. Overall I was happy with the race. I just hope we can find a way to get a smoother build-up over the weekend because it will make life a lot easier.�

Lucas di Grassi, Race Driver #25
“I had a very positive start to the race today as I gained four places on the first lap and was running up behind Heikki for many laps. The car was behaving well, so I was confident we could beat Lotus on the track today and really push after the switch to the option tyre. I hit a bump on the kerb which damaged the suspension and so I lost the car. The damage meant that it was impossible to continue so what could have been a really great race ended early for me. However, we have shown the strength of the car here so I’m really looking forward to the Hungarian Grand Prix next weekend.�

John Booth, Team Principal
“It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster weekend for us, starting out with a strong Free Practice on Friday, followed by the disappointment of our problems on Saturday and then a really strong race for both Timo and Lucas. It is frustrating that having pulled it all back today in the race we lost Lucas’ car in the closing stages, but I think the whole team goes to Hungary with great anticipation for a strong weekend.�

Nick Wirth, Technical Director
“A very encouraging day for the team. We chose a conservative strategy of starting both cars on prime tyres and at the beginning the extra performance of the Option tyres allowed Heikki to open up a small gap which became bigger when the blue-flag-hell started. At the same time, Timo got stuck behind Bruno for a long time before he was able to get Lucas back in his sights. After Heikki finally pitted for his prime tyres, and came out behind us, it was encouraging to see us able to maintain or increase our gap despite his advantage of fresh tyres. Lucas was having another very strong race, when it looks like a very harsh exit kerb caused a rear suspension issue which sadly forced us to retire him.

“On the other hand, Timo’s race ended with a nice gap in the blue flags which allowed him to put in a sequence of quick laps and finish the best of the new teams. Yesterday, we were frustrated by not being able to show our performance improvements, but we have certainly done that today. In fact Timo’s race fastest lap was only 2.3 seconds down on the leader and 1.4 down on the fastest Williams, which is impressive in our first year. We’ll try and eliminate the issues that tripped us up this weekend and we go to Hungary determined to have a better race again, on a track that should suit our cars current aero characteristics.â€�

source: virginracing.com

coming soon

source: Cosworth F1 Media

Bridgestone Motorsport’s German Grand Prix Report

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro’s Fernando Alonso won a fast-paced and tactical German Grand Prix by using a super soft – hard Bridgestone Potenza tyre strategy in Hockenheim.

Alonso won his second race of the season, his first since the season-opener in Bahrain, leading team-mate Felipe Massa across the line. Red Bull Racing’s Sebastian Vettel finished third.

Hiroshi Yasukawa – Director of Bridgestone Motorsport, says
“Congratulations to Ferrari for their second 1-2 of the season. Germany is a very important market for us and Bridgestone are happy to have contributed to the excitement we saw today. Even in our final season of Formula 1 we continue to work positively with the sport and I am proud that we continue to push with aspects such as our compound allocation for races.�

Hirohide Hamashima – Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, says
“Both compounds worked better than we expected. The super soft lasted very well. A good example of this was Jenson Button who was to gain position by staying on the super soft for his first stint longer than the other front runners. The hard compound did take longer to warm-up than we usually see with the prime tyre, and we saw evidence of this in the race with locked brakes, less grip in the corners and lower traction before it was in its correct temperature operating range. I believe that today was a good illustration of the strength of our development engineers in Japan. These tyres were designed before the start of the season, and we have many changes such as the narrower front tyres, and no more refuelling meaning heavier cars. Despite this, our engineers have produced tyres capable of working well with this season’s cars, even when we try an extreme allocation as we did here.�

source: Bridgestone Motorsport