Bridgestone declared themselves ‘proud’ of the performance of both compounds of tyres that they brought to Monaco this weekend.
All of the drivers who started on the front five rows of the grid started on the super-soft compound and pitted just once during the race to change to the medium, or prime, tyre.
Fernando Alonso in particular made one set of medium tyres last for 77 laps.
Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development, summed up the day from the tyre company’s point of view: “Today I am proud to say that both compounds of Bridgestone Potenzas performed very well and a variety of strategies were possible.
“The medium compound was so strong. It provided good lap times right up to the end of the race, even when it had been used for 77 laps as in the case of Fernando Alonso, who achieved a good result after starting from the pit lane.”
The super soft compound also showed praise worthy performance, even with the heavy fuel loads at the start of the race. We could see from the pace of Nico Rosberg before his pit stop that this tyre could have been used for longer stints than we generally saw.
“We always expect transverse graining on the rear tyres here, due to the traction demands of the circuit layout, but we were surprised at how well our tyres resisted this. The drivers should have got good satisfaction from our tyres today, and I am happy with this.”
Hiroshi Yasukawa, Director of Bridgestone Motorsport, was also pleased with how the weekend had gone: “Once more this wonderful, historic location of Monaco has provided Formula One with an excellent race and we are proud of the performance of our tyres which added to the spectacle today.”
Many spectators here and television viewers around the world were rewarded with a fantastic sporting event. We enjoy a good relationship with the people of Monaco and our signage has always been very prominent here. It shows the brand name of Bridgestone strongly on televisions and newspapers everywhere.
“Congratulations to Mark Webber and Red Bull for their consecutive win, and also to Renault who powered all three podium finishers.”
