Lewis Hamilton (McLaren Mercedes) employed a soft-soft-super soft tyre strategy to score his third win of his debut Formula One season in the Hungarian Grand Prix. Hamilton took the chequered flag 0.7 seconds ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari). Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) finished third. Today’s
podium result means that there have been over 300 F1 podium positions achieved on Bridgestone tyres with the total tally now 302.

Hamilton led from pole to chequered flag, and was under race-long pressure from Raikkonen. The Finn employed the same tyre strategy as Hamilton and set today’s fastest lap on the last lap of the race on the super soft. The 1min 20.047secs lap was the 110th fastest lap set in Formula One on Bridgestone Potenza tyres.

Heidfeld employed a three stop strategy to achieve his third place, using the super soft tyres on his final stint. Heidfeld was under pressure from fourth-finishing Fernando Alonso (McLaren Mercedes) at the end of the race. Alonso started from sixth position on the grid after being issued with a penalty for his actions impeding his team-mate in the qualifying session.

Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber) mirrored team-mate Heidfeld’s three stop tyre strategy to take fifth place. Ralf Schumacher (Toyota) finished sixth on a two stop strategy with the super soft in the final stint. Nico Rosberg (Williams Toyota) used a three stop strategy with the super soft in the final stint to finish seventh.

Heikki Kovalainen (Renault) scored the final point with eighth place, one of only two drivers to use the super soft tyre for two stints. Kovalainen’s first stint on this tyre was 27 laps long. Both McLaren Mercedes cars are subject to an FIA Stewards decision meaning they will not score constructors’ points from today’s race. This decision is being appealed by the team.

Bridgestone Potenza Formula One tyres will next be in action at the Petrol Ofisi Turkish Grand Prix on August 24-26, where Bridgestone’s hard and medium compounds will be used.

Kees van de Grint, Bridgestone Motorsport Head of Track Engineering Operations:
“So many things have happened over this weekend that one could almost forget that we’re witnessing a fantastic championship and a fantastic battle for victory today. I believe Bridgestone plays an important but not deciding part of the very close racing. The soft compound Bridgestone Potenza was a very high performing tyre over the entire weekend whilst the super soft provided a challenge for the drivers and engineers. The track and weather conditions came to the super soft and it performed excellently, setting the race’s fastest lap on the final lap of the race. We saw a variety of tyre strategies today, the most interesting conducted by Kovalainen who started on the super soft and completed two stints on this compound on his way to a well-deserved point. It is fair to say that after Friday and Saturday’s running I was a little concerned by the performance of the super soft, but the fact it performed so well in the race is a compliment to our engineers in Tokyo who made the correct estimation. All in all I am very satisfied that we brought the correct tyres which worked well today.”