Summary – Saturday – Bridgestone watches the sky…

A number of drivers complained today about the poor grip on the track in Sepang, Malaysia. Bridgestone explained that it was due to the rain last night as well as the new surface.

Finally, and it’s quite normal, the quantities of fuel loaded in the single-seaters play a huge role in stability. The rain has so far spared the F1 drivers (which is not the case for those in GP2), but for tomorrow’s race, the risk is very much present.

Hirohide Hamashima – Director of Tire Development Bridgestone Motorsport:

« Congratulations to Felipe Massa for his first pole position in the 2008 season. Today, it seems that the Mediums had more grip because the cars were probably lighter in Q1 and Q2, but in Q3, the cars were undoubtedly heavier, and the difference was made on this point. »

« We had heavy rain showers last night and the track was similar to yesterday after free practice 1. We saw a spectacular improvement in our compounds as the laps went by during free practice 3 and today’s qualifying. »

« The teams will have to spend a lot of time analyzing the data we give them to decide which tire strategy to adopt for the race, which may be dry or wet. In the case of a race with wet conditions, the strategies could be very interesting because no one has experience with the combination of rain and the absence of traction control! »