08/06/2008
NEWS STORY
Robert Kubica has achieved his first ever Grand Prix victory after using a soft - soft - super soft Bridgestone Potenza tyre strategy in the seventh round of the FIA Formula One World Championship, the Canadian Grand Prix.
Kubica 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 made a mistake and drove into the back of Kimi Raikkonen, 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 finished in third place, making his first podium appearance since the Monaco Grand Prix in 2006. Timo Glock 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 finished sixth. Rubens Barrichello finished seventh, and Sebastian Vettel 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 on lap 14, using the super soft compound.
Leaving Montreal, Kubica leads the drivers' championship with 42 points, ahead of Hamilton in second on 38 points, with Massa in third on the same points tally. Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro continue to lead the constructors' championship with 73 points, ahead of the BMW Sauber F1 Team on 70. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are in third place on 53. 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 - Director of Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development: 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.