Istanbul: Bridgestone preview

The Bridgestone-supported GP2 Series heads to Turkey for its eighth round, where two races on Bridgestone's hard compound GP2 slick racing Potenza will be played out on the challenging and diverse Istanbul circuit, scene of the Turkish Grand Prix on August 24-26.

The hard compound Bridgestone Potenza has been used twice before this season, first at Barcelona where Timo Glock (iSport) and Bruno Senna (Arden) won races and in Silverstone where Adam Carroll (FMS) and Andreas Zuber (iSport) took the spoils.

Istanbul is a difficult track to master. There is a mix of gradient and a range of different radius corners as well as long straights and high speed sections. It is a recently constructed wide track with a layout which allows a variety of lines into corners, aiding overtaking. It is the first circuit this season to be run in an anti- clockwise direction, with only the season-ending Valencia track also in this direction, meaning the tyres on the right-hand side of the car will get a tougher workout than usual.

The track can be characterised as one that is challenging for the tyres given the high speeds and high temperatures experienced. The ambient and track temperatures are typically higher than those experienced at other circuits during the year, and the heavy braking and high cornering forces mean a lot of heat is generated by the tyres.

In 2006, Nelson Piquet (Piquet Sports) and Andreas Zuber (Trident) took the race wins. Piquet's win came in the feature race, where he made a late pit stop and took advantage of the extra pace of new Bridgestones relative to his earlier stopping rivals. Zuber's win came in the sprint race, where Lewis Hamilton (ART) recovered from an early spin to work through the field from 14th to second at the chequered flag.

Glock remains at the top of the drivers' championship on 55 points, although he is only one point ahead of Lucas di Grassi (ART) on 54. Luca Filippi (Super Nova) is in third on 35 points.

Quote from Hirohide Hamashima - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development
"The hard compound tyre will be used in Turkey which is a track with a very high speed corner at turn 11 and a very long corner at turn eight which encourage a high rate of tyre wear. The track is anti-clockwise which means the right tyres will be under more stress at this circuit as opposed to the left tyres at all clockwise circuits. Last year the drivers generally praised the low degradation and high performance of the hard compound tyres. Some of the new circuits on the GP2 calendar provide less opportunity to overtake but Turkey is an exception as it provides opportunities at turn one, turn 11 and turn 12."

-credit: bridgestone