“We had a similar problem with Bourdais’ stop, but this time we spotted it before he left the pits and we switched to the spare fuel rig. After that, he had a problem at turn twelve, which the data reveals as a technical failure that we will now investigate. We are glad the STR2 era is over, and now we look forward to running our new car, as from the next race in Monaco.”
Hirohide Hamashima [Bridgestone – director of motorsport tyre development]:
“Today we saw a very interesting race, with many strategies and different tyre choices. There was a lot of variation in which order drivers used the hard and medium compounds, and this made for an exciting grand prix.
“In the case of Lewis Hamilton’s car, Bridgestone and the team had safety concerns which did influence his strategy; however he achieved a very good result. These concerns affected no other car on the grid, and we will be analysing the data to see what we can learn from this.
“We did see three cars finish the race after making only one stop, so durability was certainly strong for the tyres for these competitors. The track and ambient temperatures did not cause any issues. We have now contested the most severe circuit on the calendar and say goodbye to the difficult turn eight until next season, although our vigilance will, as always, remain high.”
