Zoom A breakthough result for Kubica and BMW Sauber

Robert Kubica achieved his first ever Grand Prix victory after using a soft - soft - super soft Bridgestone Potenza tyre strategy in the seventh round of the championship, the Canadian Grand Prix.

The BMW Sauber driver started from the front row and maintained his second position in the early stages of the race. He gained an advantage when early race leader Lewis Hamilton (Vodafone McLaren Mercedes) made a mistake and drove into the back of Kimi Raikkonen (Scuderia Ferrari), who had stopped at a red light at the pit exit. Both drivers retired from the race.

Kubica faced a battle for the race win with team-mate Nick Heidfeld, who used a different tyre strategy of soft – super soft, making just one pit stop to Kubica’s two. Kubica prevailed and led his team-mate across the line by 16.4seconds at the chequered flag.

David Coulthard (Red Bull) finished in third place, making his first podium appearance since the Monaco Grand Prix in 2006. Timo Glock (Toyota) scored his first points since his Formula One race debut, in Canada in 2004. Felipe Massa made three pit stops on his way to fifth position, whilst Jarno Trulli (Toyota) finished sixth. Rubens Barrichello (Honda) finished seventh, and Sebastian Vettel (Scuderia Toro Rosso) scored the final championship point.

Drivers faced a challenging afternoon, and an eventful race. After track surface problems on Saturday, sections of the circuit were resurfaced that evening. However, there were continuing issues in the race, with the track breaking up. Despite this, tyre performance from the soft and super soft compound Bridgestone Potenzas was strong. The race’s fastest lap, a 1min 17.387secs, was set by Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) on lap 14, using the super soft compound.

Formula One will next be in action on June 20- 22 with the Grand Prix du France at Magny Cours, where Bridgestone’s medium and soft compound Potenza tyres will be used.

Hirohide Hamashima, Tyre Development Director
“Congratulations to Robert Kubica and BMW Sauber on their first win. Bridgestone have a big factory in Poland, and Robert’s win today was a very good present for our employees there. It was a fantastic drive, especially at the track where he had such a big accident last year. For BMW Sauber, achieving the win and second place was a perfect result. Despite the difficult track conditions, tyre performance was good and we did not see any of the issues we experienced here last year. The track breaking-up made matters difficult for drivers, and at turn 10 in particular, we saw a number of mistakes because of this.”

E.A. © CAPSIS International