European GP: Bridgestone Friday practice notes

Two dry practice sessions, which were separated by a thunder storm, gave all twenty-two Bridgestone Potenza-shod Formula One drivers plenty to think about as they set about evaluating the medium and soft compounds for this weekend's European Grand ...

Two dry practice sessions, which were separated by a thunder storm, gave all twenty-two Bridgestone Potenza-shod Formula One drivers plenty to think about as they set about evaluating the medium and soft compounds for this weekend's European Grand Prix.

The weather in the Eifel region certainly lived up to its reputation of being unpredictable. The morning and afternoon 90 minute practice sessions had no rain, but the GP2 Series practice session between them was interrupted by a rain storm so heavy that it had to be red-flagged for much of its duration.

Although the rain had stopped by the time of the afternoon practice, and Bridgestone's wet Potenzas were used only briefly on the drying track at the session's start, the fastest time in the afternoon, set by Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) was eight tenths slower than the morning's quickest by Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes).

Most of today's running took place on Bridgestone's medium compound Potenza, with the soft only making notable appearances late in both sessions. The fastest times in both the sessions were set on the soft compound.

Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations:

"From what we have seen today I am confident that the medium and soft Bridgestone Potenzas are the correct tyres from our range for the Nurburgring. As is typical of a circuit which has a tendency to induce understeer, we saw some graining on the fronts after running on the 'green' circuit. This graining was mild on the medium compound but more severe on the soft. Despite this, I believe we can cope with any weather conditions here."

"The weather did influence today's running, although the wet tyres were only used for installation laps in the second practice session. It certainly was interesting to see how quickly the circuit dried out. As this is the Nurburgring we could still have a sunny Sunday afternoon, but the kinks of the circuit will prevent it from being a lazy Sunday afternoon for the drivers."

Stats of the Day
Total amount of laps completed by all drivers: 1155 laps
Average number of laps per car: 53 laps
Most laps by a driver: 64 - Jenson Button
Fastest lap: 1min 32.515secs - Hamilton (FP1)
Compounds: Medium and soft