Zoom Hamilton's three stops made for a great race

Felipe Massa has taken his third consecutive Turkish Grand Prix victory after using a medium-medium-hard tyre strategy at Istanbul Park for the fifth round of the championship.

Massa took his win after starting from pole position and he led McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton across the finish line by 3.7 seconds. Hamilton used a hard-hard-hard-medium tyre strategy, making three pit stops to Massa’s two, and finished just 0.4 seconds ahead of third placed Kimi Raikkonen, who used the same strategy as Ferrari team-mate Massa.

Formula One will next be in action May 22-25 with the Grand Prix de Monaco on the streets of Monte Carlo, where Bridgestone’s soft and super soft compound Potenza tyres will be used.

Hirohide Hamashima, Tyre Development Director
“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.”

E.A. © CAPSIS International