Bridgestone expects Monza surprises

Several teams struggled to get the most out of the soft and medium tyres at Spa-Francorchamps, which helped play a role in Kimi Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella enjoying their best results of the season.

With the same types of tyres being used at Monza this weekend, Bridgestone's director of motorsport tyre development Hirohide Hamashima reckons that there is the chance of an equally topsy-turvy result.

"As we saw in Spa the allocation of the medium and the soft compound tyres has the potential to provide interesting results," explained Hamashima.

"The medium compound is the softest of our higher temperature working range tyres and the soft is the hardest of our lower temperature working range tyres. This means that their overall performance can be very similar, however their characteristics are different.

"In Spa we saw that different tyres suited different car characteristics, set-ups and driver preference, so maybe it will be the same situation in Monza. However it is a more severe circuit so good tyre management is likely to be a bigger factor. "

The characteristics of the tyres in Belgium left many drivers struggling to work out which type was better for qualifying, or how to use them strategically in the race.