Winning Tyres Formula for Ferrari at Spa
By Alex Kapadia
Kimi Raikkonen used a soft – medium - soft tyres strategy to score his first race win of the season after a thrilling and tactical Belgian Grand Prix at Spa today.
The Ferrari driver finished less than a second ahead of pole-sitter Giancarlo Fisichella who achieved Force India’s best ever result with second, after opting for a tyres line-up of soft-soft-medium.
Sebastian Vettel came in third, but there was bad news for British drivers Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton.
The Brawn and McLaren drivers went crashing out of the race after a pile-up on the first lap.
Hiroshi Yasukawa, director of motorsport for Bridgestone, said: “Today we saw a very exciting race, where Bridgestone’s tyres provided a vital ingredient.”
While Hirohide Hamashima, the Japanese tyre manufacturers director of motorsport tyre development, added: “This has been a very interesting weekend from a tyre perspective, and this has provided a very exciting race.
“The medium and soft Bridgestone tyres were quite evenly matched for overall performance, and each podium finisher used a different strategy to achieve their result.
“Which tyre was best for which team depended on car characteristics, set-up and driver preference so we saw a good range of strategy choices.
“We did see some very small blisters today for the first time this season, so we can say that the tyres were worked hard at this track.
“We will use the same tyre allocation at Monza, so it will be interesting to see how the teams translate what they have learnt here to the next race.”
Number: Z8037079
Reg: NKF419
