F1: Tyre Durability Helps Webber Stay Top as Alonso Claims Victory

While Fernando Alonso’s win for Ferrari makes the Spanish former-champion the man to watch in the last few races of the season, Mark Webber’s third place at the Singapore Grand Prix, which helped him open up an 11-point gap at the top of the Drivers Championship, was eye-catching for tyre-based reasons, as Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development director Hirohide Hamashima explained: “Mark showed the durability of the medium compound by completing almost all of the race distance on the same set of tyres. Not only did Mark’s tyres continue to deliver strong performance, but they also withstood the contact with Lewis [Hamilton]. In this contact the front right tyre sidewall was pushed out of alignment with the rim, yet it retained its inner pressure for the rest of the race. We can say that this tyre displayed true Japanese grit today.”

Hamashima continued: “Today we saw another very exciting race. It was the first time this weekend that we had a completely dry track so there was a lot of track surface evolution. This made the strategies very interesting as we were all watching very closely to see how both compounds would perform. We could certainly see differences with tyre wear and degradation from different cars, car set-ups and driving styles. Both Fernando and Sebastian managed their tyres very well with very similar strategies meaning a very close battle between them for the entire race.”

Hiroshi Yasukawa, director of Bridgestone Motorsport, extended his congratulations to Alonso and Ferrari and “the organisers of the Singapore Grand Prix for putting for such a great spectacle. This race is very tough for teams and drivers but it gives us one of the most exciting events for fans and spectators set against the fabulous night time skyline of Singapore. I think that this will continue to be a strong event for Formula One with many new fans here. I believe that the Bridgestone brand has been promoted very well from here to the outside world.”