Zoom 1218 laps laps completed in total and Massa P1

Felipe Massa set the marker on the opening day of running for the French Grand Prix by using Bridgestone’s medium compound Potenza tyre to set the day’s fastest lap time at the 4.41km Magny Cours circuit in rural France for the eighth round of the championship.

Massa set his time – a 1:15.306s – in the morning 90 minute practice session, where temperatures were cooler than those seen in the afternoon. The Ferrari driver was almost seven-tenths faster than the next driver, Lewis Hamilton while McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen went third fastest in this session.

In the afternoon, times were generally slower and Renault driver Fernando Alonso went fastest with a 1:15.778s, set on the soft compound. Massa was second fastest, almost eight-tenths adrift of Alonso’s time. Kimi Raikkonen was third quickest.

Bridgestone’s medium and soft compounds were put through their paces on this tricky technical circuit. As often happens here, the track temperature varied significantly during the course of the sessions, making finding the correct set-up difficult for competitors. Despite some predictions of rain, the day remained dry and Bridgestone’s wet and extreme wet tyres were not used.

Massa’s best lap time achieved today was almost eight-hundredths faster than last year’s best time set in Friday’s running.

Hirohide Hamashima, Tyre Development Director
“This morning the circuit was quite dirty as usual and we saw front tyre graining on some cars. In the afternoon session, the track was a lot cleaner and the graining vanished. The second session allowed teams to compare the medium and soft compounds and it seems that the soft compound has an initial advantage of 0.2 – 0.4 seconds."

"However, at the moment the rear tyre degradation of the soft compound is bigger than that of the medium compound. Tomorrow’s running will be interesting as teams will gain more data and try to decide their strategy for the race.”

E.A. © CAPSIS International