China preview quotes: Bridgestone

Hiroshi Yasukawa, Director of Motorsport: "With just three rounds to go, we are now at a crucial point in the season. Ferrari is battling for the drivers' and constructors' championships while for our other four teams, every point gained is essential. Consequently, our staff have been working tirelessly and we are looking forward to the final stages of what has been an extremely exciting season

"The city of Shanghai has always provided us with a very well run event with fantastic facilities so we are looking forward to providing the spectators with a great race."

Hisao Suganuma, Motorsport Technical Manager: "The Shanghai Circuit has a unique track layout in the shape of the Chinese character for Shang. Consequently, one corner is like a corkscrew and this can put the left front tyres under some strain.

"At the previous two Grands Prix in China we have seen quite high levels of graining on the front lefts so controlling the graining will be a key factor this weekend. On the whole, the track is a medium speed circuit with a relatively long straight and a fairly smooth surface - very similar to the surface in Turkey.

"Therefore, although we are looking for a strong compound to cope with the graining, Bridgestone's tyres for China will be using compounds from the softer end of the range in order to get a competitive edge. We recently completed several tyre programmes at Mugello (Italy) and Silverstone (UK) where the good weather enabled us to assess a number of different tyre specifications for the China and Japan Grands Prix.

"For the coming weekend, the Bridgestone teams will be using tyres from the current range which have not only shown good graining durability but also the high performance levels which the teams will need to be competitive."