It’s all hotting up for Brawn at the latest Grand Prix in Spa this weekend – the tyres, the title race, the rivalry between team mates.

Jenson Button remains at the top of the points table at the moment, but now his closest rival is fellow Brawn driver Rubens Barrichello.

It appears they have put their tyres problem to rest judging yesterday’s practise session, where they appeared to have heated up fine despite the cold temperatures.

However, they came in 17th and 18th in the dry second practice, although team boss Ross Brawn attributed this more to not finding the right set-up yet rather than the familiar tyre temperature bugbear.

While Button added: “We definitely don’t have a tyre temperature issue here. The tyres are working. They’re very hot. I’m sure it’s down to some of the things we’ve done to the car to help with that, but also the asphalt is quite abrasive.”

Button leads Barrichello by 18 points with Red Bull driver Mark Webber trailing just 2.5 points behind the Brazilian.

Today’s qualifying will be crucial for the Brawn team – and in particular Jenson Button!

Alex Kapadia, Operations Team

By Oliver Hall

Three schoolboys - one aged just ten - have been arrested after 30 cars had their tyres slashed.

Some or all of their tyres were slashed with a sharp instrument causing more than £5,000 worth of damage during the overnight vandalism spree in Lancaster last week.

And because etyres overheads are lower, its prices are up to 40% cheaper than the leading tyre chains.

Etyres, the UKs leading online tyres retailer, is regularly called out by customers who have been the victim of this mindless act of vandalism.

Bridgestone will take the medium and soft tyres to the Belgiuan Grand Prix this weekend for the race which takes place on the longest circuit of the year.

The challenge of the 7km Spa Francorchamps circuit, located in the forests of the Ardennes region, is legendary.

This is the first time the medium and soft tyres have been used in a consecutive allocation for a race, which features 19 corners and offers a real high speed challenge over its undulating course.

Hirohide Hamashima, director of motorsport tyre development for Bridgestone, said: “Spa is a classic race circuit.

“It is fast and also has some interesting technical challenges over the course of a lap, and a lap here is longer than anywhere else we visit during the course of a season.

“There are very long high speed sections, with fast corners. Despite being a fast circuit, the downforce levels used on the cars is quite high, meaning heavy loads are transferred through the tyres.

“There is significant gradient change over a lap too. Eau Rouge is a very fast corner and the compression at the bottom of the corner means a lot of force through the tyres. Here sufficient tyre pressure is critical.”

Mr Hamashima added: “In tyre terms this is a severe circuit. High loads are put through the tyres during a lap.

“It can be quite cold here, so getting initial heat into the tyres could be a challenge, especially with the higher temperature working range medium compound.

“We must not, of course, forget the weather. We have seen wet races many times at Spa. Because it is a long course you can have one part dry, one part wet.

“Tyre choice during the course of the race could well be the deciding factor.”

Alex Kapadia, Operations Team

It’s dubbed the “worst road in Britain” and boasts more than 100 potholes that have inflicted costly damage to tyres, shock absorbers and exhaust pipes.

But finally Leicester City Council, who had refused to admit there was a serious problem, has climbed down and agreed to spend £50,000 on the road.

Now, after countless tyres have been burst, shock absorbers have collapsed and exhaust pipes fallen off, the residents of Netherhall Road are celebrating victory after a two year letter writing campaign.

And to prove it pays to complain, a team of 30 works has been resurfacing the street this week for the first time in 30 years.

Chris Hopewell, a 23-year-old office worker, said: “It’s about time.  I live just off Netherhall road so I use it all the time and I’m always having to repair my car.

“At the minute I need my two front shockers repairing.”

More than 2,000 people signed a petition and hundreds of homeowners and local businesses wrote letters of complaint, finally forcing the council to re-classify the road as a high priority for repairs.

The council had £850,000 set aside for “reactive repairs” such as potholes, the work at Netherhall Road swallowed up six per cent of the budget.

Denna Bowman, Head Office

Around 5,000 trees have been planted at the Yokohama Rubber tyres factory in Thailand as part of the company’s continuing tree planting programme.

The second phase of the plant’s “Yokohama Forever Forest” project – the first phase-two planting conducted at a Yokohama tyres facility outside of Japan – took place earlier this month.

Around 1,100 employees, family members, local residents and other volunteers planted 26 varieties of tree under the supervision of Sirin Kawlaierd,a  tree planting expert employed by the Thai Imperial Household Agency and Akira Miyawaki, an expert in physiognomy and Professor Emeritus of Yokohama National University.

The “Yokohama Forever Forest” project is being implemented over a 10-year period to 2017 – its conclusion is timed to coincide with the company’s 100th anniversary.

Under the guidance of Miyawaki, a total of 500,000 trees will be planted at seven domestic and 11 overseas Yokohama Rubber Group plants in accordance with potential natural vegetation.

In Japan, the first-phase tree planting has already been completed at all the manufacturing bases, and the implementation of second-phase tree planting began in April 2009.

Overseas, the first-phase of planting has taken place at four sites. In total, approximately 100,000 trees have been planted through the project worldwide.

Fingers crossed it’s looking good for the Bank Holiday weekend with the Met office forecasting warm and sunny weather!

But motorists should check their tyres and carry out other preparatory steps before hitting the roads if they want to avoid car troubles down the road.

Checking your tyres before a journey could prevent a slow puncture or damaged tyres bursting at high speeds.

And making sure your tyres are properly inflated is also going to boost your fuel economy – as well as reducing your cars CO2 emissions.

The Highways Agency announced it will help people make smoother and more reliable journeys over the August Bank Holiday weekend by suspending or completing more than half of its road projects on motorways and major A roads.

Derek Turner, Director of Network Operations said: “At this time of year a lot of people will be taking journeys they are not familiar with, so our advice is to plan your journey and make sure you check the conditions before you leave.

“We expect the roads to the main holiday centres, ports and airports will be busy so we’re doing everything we can to help drivers with their journeys. We have removed as many roadworks as possible and provide a number of information services to help road users plan their journeys.

“It’s also a good idea to take food and water with you, and a map, just in case you need to find an alternative route. You should also check your vehicle’s tyres, oil, water and fuel before setting out and allow extra time to plan for breaks to complete your journey safely.”

Oliver Hall, Operations Team

A thorough inquest into Lewis Hamilton’s bungled pit stop in Valencia at the weekend puts the blame at the pit wall NOT the garage.

A fraction of a second mis-timing in changing the pit-stop strategy cost the McLaren driver “a couple of seconds” because his tyres were not ready.

All the kit and tyres were out of position when Hamilton arrived in his box, because the teams decision to let him stay out for one more lap wasn’t relayed in time and he had already turned into the pit lane.

However, teams are not allowed out of the garage unless their car is on its way into the pits (which can include on the in-lap), so the tyres and equipment were not ready.

Jonathan Neale, the team managing director, moved to dismiss any suggestion that it had been the team’s mechanics at fault for mistake, insisting it was purely the pit walls error.

He is confident, however, that the management and engineers on the pit wall will be more switched-on when making strategy calls during the next Grand Prix at Spa in Belgium.

Neale said: “I have to say that, in defence of the garage, the garage are blameless.

“In this case there was some unfair criticism of the guys who actually manage the tyres and work the cars – the crew did an excellent job but our decision making was slow and we compromised the pit stop.

“So what we need to do for this weekend is learn on that, look at our decision making, and everybody on the pit wall who has been through the after event analysis and debrief will be sharper next week.”

Alex Kapadia, Operations Team

By Denna Bowman

The infamous Norfolk tyres mountain could finally be cleared away as plans for the creation of a major £1 million recycling plant move forward.

An estimated 600,000 car and lorry tyres on the Tattersett Business Park, near Fakenham, have been an eyesore on the area’s landscape for more than a decade and it has been described as an environmental “ticking timebomb”.

But now businessman Roger Gawn, who acquired the business park earlier this year, says he is moving closer to seeing the establishment of a recycling plant on the site.

The project will deal with processing and recycling the existing tyres on the site and it will also handle the growing problem of the region’s unwanted tyres.

Mr Gawn said there have already been meetings to between the various interested parties including North Norfolk District Council and the Environment Agency.

He said: “There have been behind-the-scenes talks going on and I am pressing ahead with my solution to this major problem which is to establish a properly-run eco-friendly tyre recycling operation.

“Not only would such an operation deal with the existing problem but would also provide a way of dealing with the recycling of tyres in the region.”

Mr Gawn has had talks with people involved in tyre recycling and to identify commercial uses for the tyres once they have been shredded into a product known as crumb, according to a report in the Fakenham and Wells Times.

He added: “This is not a cheap option and we are talking of a one million pound operation but it will provide a once-and-for-all solution to the problem and provide new jobs.

“It would also provide knock-on jobs for people involved in the commercial manufacturing at the other end of the process.”

By Denna Bowman

Eco-cars can save you cash, but you’re just as likely to cut your motoring bills by improving the way you drive and looking after your car, a Which? investigation claims.

Eco-cars come equipped with the latest low-rolling resistance tyres and other new technologies, but simply keeping your tyres in good condition and improving your driving technique can add to your vehicles fuel-efficiency, according to the consumer watchdog.

Researchers compared eco versions of popular cars like the Ford Fiesta with their standard ‘sister’ models, and found significant differences in the savings they offered.

While the 2.0-litre Volkswagen Passat BlueMotion saved £135 over 10,000 miles, the smaller Vauxhall Corsa ecoFLEX was streets behind, only saving £19.

Which? states that eco cars are simply tweaked versions of popular models, offering lower CO2 emissions and more miles to the gallon. But they often have higher list prices than ‘standard’ cars, which can offset any fuel savings.

What’s more, Which? found that all of the eco cars it tested took longer to slow down than their regular counterparts. When braking from 62mph, the 1.4 TDI Skoda Fabia Greenline took 41m to stop – that’s 4.5m more than the ‘ordinary’ Fabia.

The 2.0-litre TDI VW Passat BlueMotion, meanwhile, (which had the shortest stopping distance among the eco cars tested) took 2m longer to stop than its less-efficient sister model.

Richard Headland, motoring editor of Which?, said: “Eco cars are good for company car users who want to cut their tax bills, but their cost premium and driving compromises may prove too much for low-mileage drivers – especially when it comes to safety issues such as longer braking distances.

“Improving your driving technique is just as likely to cut fuel bills and CO2 and remember that it pays to keep your car and tyres in good condition.’

A neat little gadget has come onto the market to help motorists check their car tyres are properly inflated.

The digital tyres pressure gauge from Richbrook is a really useful addition to any motorist’s arsenal and it will come in hand for day to day driving or precision track-day set up.

The key-ring sized gizmo contains a super-accurate pressure gauge that measures in both PSA and BAR to a +/- 1% level of accuracy - akin to a much larger unit.

And the smart blue LED display, unlike black or red, is easy to read in any weather, day or night.

Its ingenious design also incorporates an inbuilt flashlight and key clip, making the gauge the perfect travel companion in all manner of situations.

Richbrook, the sport auto accessories company, also points out that if you’re in the habit of checking your tyres in the dark, it’s inbuilt flashlight makes it the gauge for you!

It has a tactile rubberised finish for durability and comes complete with a velvet storage bag for those that prefer to keep them tucked away in the glove box.

Research undertaken by a leading tyre company reveals that just a 6 psi drop in tyre pressure leads to an approximate 10% increase in fuel consumption, whilst rapidly accelerating tyre wear by up to 30%!

So, priced at around £15 the little gauge will pay for itself in no time at all.

Oliver Hall, Operations Team