McLarens Set Pace on Hard and Soft Potenzas in China

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton set the fastest times in Friday’s morning and afternoon practice sessions for this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix, the former on the hard compound Bridgestone Potenza tyre, the latter on the soft. Conditions were described as cool and dry for the afternoon session, which benefitted users of the soft compound since it was quicker to warm up, as Bridgestone’s director of Motorsport Tyre Development, Hirohide Hamashima said: “The soft compound provided the fastest lap time today and a quicker warm-up, although the overall lap time difference was not as big as we have seen at some tracks.

“This could mean that some of the top teams opt for the hard compound in Q1 tomorrow to save their softer tyres for the later sessions. Of course, the last three out of four races here have been wet so the weather, as always, will be the most important consideration for tyre performance.” Hamilton set a 1min35.217secs time midway through the afternoon practice session. Button previously went fastest in the morning practice session, using the hard compound to set a time of 1min 36.677secs.

Hamashima concluded: “Today we faced a dirty and dusty track and we experienced relatively cool conditions, although not as cold as it was yesterday. As expected, there was not a lot of grip given by the track, although this improved through the day. We saw graining, particularly on the front tyres, although this was only mild and no cause for concern.”