31/07/2007
NEWS STORY
The Bridgestone-supported GP2 Series heads to Budapest for its seventh round, where two races on Bridgestone’s medium compound GP2 slick racing Potenza will be played out on the tight and twisty Hungaroring circuit, scene of the Hungarian Grand Prix on August 3-5.
The medium compound Bridgestone Potenza was last used at the Nurburgring in Germany, which has very different characteristics from the Hungaroring. Timo Glock (iSport) and Javier Villa (Racing Engineering) scored wins there thanks to it. For Villa, it was his second win of the year on this compound, after his earlier victory in Magny Cours.
Drivers will find the Hungaroring track is generally harder on the tyres on the left hand side of their cars. In terms of strategy, the pit-stop race winner in 2006, Nelson Piquet Jr (Piquet Sports), changed all four Bridgestone Potenzas on course to his victory. A car set-up with a good turn-in is required to extract the best lap time in Budapest. Cars run with high downforce levels, but also require good mechanical grip and traction out of the low speed corners.
Hirohide Hamashima - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development: "Hungary is one of the most challenging tracks on the GP2 calendar and is characteristically a very low speed circuit all round. There are no long straights, which makes overtaking difficult at the Hungaroring. The only real chance to overtake is at turn one and this emphasises the importance of qualifying and pit stop strategy. Tyres are under greater load when cornering, and because there so many corners and short straights in Hungary the heat accumulates in the tyres, resulting in high degradation. Cornering speed is slow so there is not a high rate of tyre wear at this circuit. Hungary is not used as much as other European circuits over the year, which also means low grip levels are experienced at this track."
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