Zoom Massa fastest on the harder Potenza this morning

Felipe Massa set the marker on the opening day of running for the Turkish Grand Prix using Bridgestone’s hard compound Potenza tyre to set the day’s fastest lap time at the 5.34 km Istanbul Park Circuit for the fifth round of the Championship.

Massa set his, and the day’s, fastest time in the morning 90 minute practice session and his 1min 27.323secs was over a tenth faster than second fastest driver Heikki Kovalainen, who was back in the car for the first time after his accident in the Spanish Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton was third fastest in this session.

In the afternoon practice session it was Massa’s team-mate, Kimi Raikkonen who went fastest, setting a time of 1min 27.543secs, also on the hard compound. Hamilton was the second fastest driver in this session, going just over three hundredths slower, using the medium compound. Massa was third fastest in this session.

Both Bridgestone’s hard and medium compounds were put through their paces on this, the first anticlockwise circuit of the season. This year the Turkish Grand Prix is taking place in May so weather conditions are considerably colder than previous events at this track, which took place in August. Despite this, the nature of the circuit layout means sufficient heat is generated in the tyres in the course of a lap, and the lap times were quicker than the Friday fastest from last season, a 1min 27.988secs set by Raikkonen in FP1.

Hirohide Hamashima, Tyre Development Director
“Today the temperature was quite a lot cooler than we have seen at previous Turkish Grand Prix, but we expected this with the change of date. On the medium compound we did see more graining than we have previously experienced here, particularly on the front right. However, the circuit was very green today and we can expect a circuit improvement tomorrow and on Sunday. With the track improvements we should see better tyre performance from both the hard and the medium compounds.”

E.A. © CAPSIS International