Formula 1
Monaco GP: Bridgestone Thursday practice report
Bridgestone's super soft tyre proved to be the fastest rubber on the streets of Monte Carlo for the first day of the Monaco Grand Prix. In warm and sunny conditions overlooking the fabulous Monaco harbour, Nico Rosberg set the day's fastest lap ...
Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:56 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Bridgestone's super soft tyre proved to be the fastest rubber on the streets of Monte Carlo for the first day of the Monaco Grand Prix. In warm and sunny conditions overlooking the fabulous Monaco harbour, Nico Rosberg set the day's fastest lap time, a 1min 15.243secs, in his AT&T Williams during the afternoon practice session.
Track conditions improved throughout the day as rubber was laid on the street course and the circuit surface was cleared of normal public road debris. Brawn GP driver Rubens Barrichello was the fastest driver in the morning session, using the soft compound to set a time of 1min 17.189secs. The soft and super soft compounds are used here in Monaco, both compounds being from Bridgestone's low temperature working range of F1 tyres.
Q&A with Hirohide Hamashima - Bridgestone Director of Motorsport Tyre Development
What was significant about today's running?
"Today was a challenge for all the drivers as the grip level in Monaco is very difficult to learn, and any mistakes are punished by the barriers. There are significant sections of resurfacing, however the new surface is very smooth, just as the older sections of track are, so there is not a significant difference between the two from a tyre performance perspective. As a first day at Monaco, we saw the lap times fall dramatically over the course of the day as the track cleared and the rubber was put down. It was a good day in terms of gaining data as the weather was fine and the running was not interrupted. However, we will not see any F1 running here tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how the track surface changes for Saturday."
How do you expect this allocation to work over the weekend?
"Even though these are our softest tyres, drivers will struggle for grip here due to the unique slippery nature of this track. Despite this, we saw very good displays from the drivers today with some exceptional car control, as we would expect of the best drivers in the world. The super soft tyre was faster than the soft tyre, as we expected. The difference between the two tyres today was around 0.4 seconds over the fastest lap. Both tyres delivered their fastest lap on the first or second flying lap, and neither tyre suffers greatly in terms of wear or degradation because of the low grip here."
-credit: bridgestone
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rosberg again tops practice, in Monaco
Next article Budget cap crisis won't damage F1 - Theissen
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Rubens Barrichello
Which modern Formula 1 driver raced for the most teams?
Formula 1
Formula 1
Which modern Formula 1 driver raced for the most teams?
How ex-F1 racer Rubens Barrichello is still winning races at 52
Formula 1
Formula 1
Emilia Romagna GP
How ex-F1 racer Rubens Barrichello is still winning races at 52
Why illustrious racing dads aren't always an advantage for F1 hopefuls
FIA F3
FIA F3
Why illustrious racing dads aren't always an advantage for F1 hopefuls
More from
Williams
Fernando Alonso blasts driving standards of bottom half of F1 grid
Formula 1
Formula 1
United States GP
7 h
Fernando Alonso blasts driving standards of bottom half of F1 grid
Williams has better cooling vests than anyone – Alex Albon
Formula 1
Formula 1
Williams has better cooling vests than anyone – Alex Albon
Latest news
Why Monza win from 19th still isn't the best of Kimi Antonelli's dominant F1 2026 season
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
32 min
Why Monza win from 19th still isn't the best of Kimi Antonelli's dominant F1 2026 season
What happened to Austin Hill at the end of Talladega NASCAR Cup race?
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
1 h
What happened to Austin Hill at the end of Talladega NASCAR Cup race?
Sesks tight-lipped on WRC future after ERC season finale triumph
WRC
WRC WRC 1 h
Sesks tight-lipped on WRC future after ERC season finale triumph
Franco Colapinto responds to Jeremy Clarkson’s controversial comment about him
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
2 h
Franco Colapinto responds to Jeremy Clarkson’s controversial comment about him
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe