Bridgestone happy with Bahrain tyre

The Japanese company has taken two different compounds to the test, and although its head of trackside engineering Kees van der Grint admitted the temperatures were not high enough to make the harder tyres work optimally, he was happy with the performance of the medium rubber.

"It was a quite comparable situation to last year," van der Grint told autosport.com after the first day of work.

"It is true that this is the hottest condition we have come across this winter and we can still have higher temperature, but it was not enough for the hard compound.

"There were no surprises, no problems with the durability, but we would like to see the gap between the two compounds to be less," admitted van der Grint, who said the performance difference between one type of tyre and the other was around a second per lap.

The company is hoping the difference to be around six to seven tenths.

"It is only the first day, so if it becomes hotter and more rubber gets laid, we may be able to reduce it, then the harder one will come into play," he added.

"But I think those two tyres are well geared up for the race here: medium is okay in this slightly cooler temperature and if it is hotter the harder ones will cope."

Most drivers complained after the first day of work that the harder compound was lacking grip, but they were happy with the medium option.