Bridgestone Motorsport's Spanish Grand Prix Report
Brawn GP driver Jenson Button used a two stop, soft - soft - hard tyre strategy to win a highly tactical Spanish Grand Prix in hot and sunny conditions at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona.
Button finished thirteen seconds ahead of team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who used a three stop, soft - soft - soft - hard tyre strategy. The final podium position went to Red Bull Racing driver Mark Webber who used the same strategy as Button for third.
Bridgestone's soft tyre proved to be the superior race tyre here, giving a faster lap time than the hard, and giving good consistency too.
Hiroshi Yasukawa - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport, says
"Congratulations to Jenson Button for his win and Brawn GP for their 1-2. It is satisfying to see an independent team such as Brawn GP perform so well and it is good to watch Jenson showing his talents at the front of the field. Spain is a very important market for Bridgestone, so to start the European season with such a strong race was very rewarding for us. Lap times were very close and we saw good action on track."
Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, says
"Today was a very exciting race in terms of tyre strategy. It was clear all weekend that the soft tyre was a superior race tyre to the hard, so the strategy had to maximise time on the soft. We saw a variety of two and three stops take place so it was a race we had to watch closely to see who would win. Congratulations to Jenson, whose two stop strategy worked best to win the race and Rubens for a solid second place. Mark Webber also drove very well. Most drivers found the soft tyre to be very durable as well as quicker than the hard tyre. Some drivers experienced rear tyre degradation which is what we would expect with the current cars, but overall it was a strong tyre performance with no particular issues."