Bridgestone sees Ferrari tyre progress

That is the view of F1 tyre supplier Bridgestone, which claims that the initial analysis from practice in Valencia shows less of a difference than is normal between the tyre use on the McLaren and the Ferrari.

Hirohide Hamashima, Bridgestone's director of motorsport tyre development, said: "There has been a very small difference between McLaren, Ferrari and the other teams - so maybe every team improved their car from the last race.

"And now Ferrari can get a very good time on the first lap, I think."

Bridgestone believes that the choice of the super soft and soft tyre for the European GP was the right decision, as he predicts a big difference between the option and prime rubber in terms of wear rate.

"Both compounds are working reasonably and the lap time difference was very small because the circuit was very, very dirty," he explained. "But the wear rate is different.

"The super soft has a higher wear rate than the soft, and the degradation is a bit bigger. But according to our simulation when the circuit is very clean and the rubber is down, in that case we can expect the time difference between the two tyres is about three-tenths."